Vaccine and health-related applications for ruminant breath monitoring system

ABSTRACT

A method for managing health of ruminants or other animals. The method includes providing a feed dispenser for feeding ruminants nutrient supplements, and the feed dispenser includes a gas analyzer where a ruminant places its head. The method includes determining a particular ruminant has accessed the feed dispenser such as by reading an identifier from an RFID ear tag and operating the feed dispenser to provide a ration of methane-controlling nutrient supplement. The method may include using the identifier to determine that the animal should be vaccinated such as based on their age and no record of prior vaccination. The method includes dispensing a dose of a nasal vaccine into the feed dispenser near the animal&#39;s nostrils. The method may include discharging a diagnostic agent such as propane or carbon monoxide and processing data collected to diagnose the animal as having a disease or condition such as a lung-related sickness.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/487,759 filed on May 19, 2011, which is incorporated herein byreference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to methods and system for monitoringgaseous emissions (or “breath”) of ruminants and of utilizing theinformation to reduce to monitor the health of individual animals and,when appropriate and at determined times based on health monitoring,initiate vaccination of animals.

BACKGROUND

Carbon dioxide is a principal component of the metabolism of allvertebrate animals. Animals breath air. Oxygen in the air is captured inthe lungs by hemoglobin in blood. Oxygenated blood is distributed tocells throughout the animal where it supplies key building-blocks tocells, and the oxygen is used to metabolize or“burn” carbon compounds,supplying energy required for cell processes. The carbon dioxideproduced during this aerobic metabolism is then transported back to thelungs with deoxygenated blood and respired as carbon dioxide (and a fewother gaseous waste products) in the animal's breath. In addition tolungs, ruminant animals have a digestive tract compartment called therumen which harbors microbes that process grass in the absence ofoxygen. This anaerobic fermentation produces large amounts of microbialprotein. The end result is that ruminants are able to convert very lowprotein plant material into building blocks that are subsequentlyassimilated by the ruminant as the feed and microbial residue passesthrough the digestive tract.

Since the fermentation of forage material in the rumen is largelycompleted in the absence of oxygen, large amounts of methane and carbondioxide are formed. These gases build-up in the rumen and createpressure that must be relieved. As a ruminant animal (such as a cow)exhales, the gaseous contents are forced from the rumen into theaesogophagus where it is exhaled (eructated or belched) preceeding anexhalation. These eructations or belches are not optional. For awell-fed animal, they must occur approximately every forty seconds orthe animal will bloat. Most of the gas produced in the rumen iseructated through the animal's nose. A small amount is dissolved in theblood, and much of that is released through the lungs. The process isecologically significant because it allows ruminant animals to utilizerelatively-low-quality forage as food and to process it anaerobically,creating nutritious by-products and microbial protein that are used bythe animal to produce high quality meat and milk. Ruminant gas fluxesare influenced by animal genetics, feed composition, consumption, andbehavior. As a result, changes in any of these parameters are likely tobe quickly reflected in the fluxes of methane and carbon dioxide thatare emitted in the course of the ruminant animal's breathing andeructations.

Routine measurements of ruminant methane and carbon dioxide emissionfluxes and the fluxes of other metabolic gases, if possible andcost-effective, would provide very sensitive indicators to monitor andtune animal function and health. This would be much like using engineexhaust analysis to monitor performance and to tune fuel flow,combustion timing, and air mixtures to maintain optimal performance of acar engine. Changes in the fluxes of methane and carbon dioxide couldinform management of optimal feed composition, the genetic feedeffeciency of individual animals, and changes in animal health andbehavior. In addition, methane emissions, although necessary, stillrepresent a significant potential feed efficeincy loss of roughly fiveto ten percent of the animal's gross energy intake. That equates toabout one third to about one half a pound of lost potential weight gainper day. Therefore, changes in management that reduce methane fluxes canalso potentially result in a net reduction of several dollars in feedcosts per animal per day.

In modern, high-volume, low margin CAFOs (concentrated animal feedingoperations), thousands of animals are housed and fed in very closequarters with a minimum labor force. Under these conditions, it isdifficult or impossible to individually monitor the health of eachanimal. However, intensive observations and individualized monitoringcan be economically important. For example, many diseases if notdiagnosed and treated quickly can rapidly create epidemics within aconfined herd. New equipment in modern dairies can be used to monitormilk production and other physical characteristics for each animal.However, by the time a problem is detected in the final products of ananimal's metabolism, it is often too late to avert the loss of anindividual or to prevent the spread of disease to others in the herd.Clearly, new technology is needed to effectively monitor each individualin large confined populations under crowded conditions.

Independent of disease monitoring, operator awareness of individualanimal behavioral changes that are reflected in changes in grazingbehaviour and animal activity can be economically important. Forexample, the research literature indicates that when an animal comesinto heat (estrus) her grazing intake decreases and her general movementactivity increases. These changes signal the optimal time forinsemination of the animal to achieve pregnancy. These changes inbehavior are thus also likely to be quickly reflected in methane fluxesand methane and carbon dioxide emission ratios. Similarly, changes infeed quality or composition that can occur when feed ingredients aremodified or when cattle are moved to new pastures are likely to impactboth the fluxes and the ratios of metabolic gas emissions.

In western feedlots, distiller's grain, which is a bi-product ofmethanol production from corn, is a preferred feed. However, ethanolplants often use sulfur-containing compounds to clean and disinfectplant facilities. Residue from these compounds can contaminate adistiller's grain. When feedlot cattle subsequently consume the grain,hydrogen sulfide is produced in the rumen. If not recognizedimmediately, the result often is the death of the animal. Routinemonitoring of the animal's breath for hydrogen sulfide could, therefore,lead to early detection of contaminated feed and prevent large economiclosses to the CAFO industry.

Individual monitoring to continually assess animal performance inrangelands can likewise be problematic. It is often difficult forproducers and operators to assess the quality and quantity of availableforage in pastures and to quantitatively determine changes in foragethat occur as grazing progresses. The literature has documented thatchanges in forage quality are reflected in changes in methane and carbondioxide fluxes from ruminants. Therefore, monitoring fluxes canpotentially inform producers to maximize grazing effectiveness and tomaintain sustainable productivity.

In rangelands, animals often are not easily approached and handled. Inaddition, grazing animals have evolved behavioral mechanisms to hidevulnerabilities from potential predators. Therefore, routine andcomparative diagnostic observations of animals to assess health andperformance are relatively difficult and expensive. Automated monitoringof metabolic gases could inform managers of changes in the health ofindividual animals. In some rangelands, toxic substances, such as somesulfur compounds, can accumulate in vegetation and water supplies. Thesesubstances can result in ruminant mortality. Hence, routine monitoringof specific metabolic gases, such as hydrogen sulfide, that are producedby an animal could alert producers to mitigate adverse impacts to theherd.

Methane is also a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG) with a GHG potentialroughly 25 times that of carbon dioxide. Some scientists estimate thatlivestock contribute up to thirty-seven percent of the total globalmethane (CH₄) budget. Dairies and beef production operations aretherefore identified as a very large global producer of GHGs, with thelargest component of their emission footprint resulting from methaneproduction in the rumens of animals. As a consequence, the global CAFOcommunity has made a comittment to reduce the GHG impact resulting fromthe production of animal products such as meat and milk.

Methane emission from bovine sources, of which the majority is throughbelching, can be significantly reduced through modification of cattlediet and other management actions. Attempts at methane emissionreduction typically involve using nutrient blocks or other feedsupplements while other efforts have concentrated on modification of thegenetic composition of the animal herd. To date, efforts to measure andpotentially remediate this source of GHG from ruminants have not beenconsidered feasible or widely implemented in part because of high costsrelated to monitoring CH₄ emission from ruminants in coordination orconcurrently with measurement of supplement use.

Prior to the invention described herein, it has been impractical toactually monitor changes in animal GHG production that result from suchefforts. The difficulties and expense of current technology, even forscientists involved in this research, has made it impractical and notcost-effective to make more than a few measurements over relativelyshort time periods for only a few animals and in only strictlycontrolled research settings. Therefore, since it is difficult to verifythat mitigation plans actually result in decreased methane emissions tothe atmosphere, few projects to generate carbon credits or greenhousegas reduction credits for sale in voluntary markets have been attempted.Likewise, the development of GHG reduction programs for ruminantemissions in the regulated GHG markets of countries has also beeninhibited because of the lack of suitable monitoring and verificationtechniques.

The loss of methane is a significant energy loss to the animal.Globally, this is equivalent to trillions of dollars of lost dietaryefficiency. Animal nutritionists know that the metabolic pathways in therumen can be modified by diet to reduce methane production and to moreefficiently process feed. Several dietary supplements are available,and, in many cases, the cost of the nutrient supplement is easilyexceeded by the animal weight gains, making use of supplementsattractive to ruminant producers such as the cattle industry.Accordingly, reduction in methane emissions by ruminants can helpanimals become more productive per unit of forage or feed while alsoreducing undesirable methane emissions. When animals eat low qualityforage, it actually takes a longer time to pass through their gut.Hence, the poorer the quality of forage, the longer it takes the animalsto digest the forage, and this results in lower weight gain but moremethane production. However, since monitoring of changes in methaneperformance under actual field conditions has been difficult orimpossible to achieve in the past, it is not practical to modify foragecomposition to minimize methane losses nor to monitor and modify geneticfactors that influence ruminant methane production. A system that canmonitor changes in relative methane emissions could therefore provideimportant information to ruminant producers concerning optimal forageand grazing conditions. In addition, since animals fed a highlyenergetic diet process that feed more quickly, they produce more methaneper unit time, but much less methane per unit of production of meat ormilk. Therefore, it can also be important to measure methane and carbondioxide from the rumen as well as carbon dioxide from the animal'sbreath in order to differentiate rumen processes from catabolic andrespiratory processes and to measure their emissions relative tomeasurements of animal production, such as animal weight gain and/oranimal milk production.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,618 discloses a system that measures the flux ofmetabolic gas emissions from cattle or other animals. The system doesnot require that the animals be confined to a chamber or stall. Ananimal whose metabolic gas emissions are to be measured is first fed apermeation tube (i.e., a metal tube with a gas-permeable plastic disk inone end). Inside the tube is a tracer that is physiologically inert. Thepermeation tube is filled with pressurized liquid tracer, which slowlypermeates in gaseous form through the plastic disk. In order to measurerumen-produced and respiratory metabolic gases, a sample container, suchas an evacuated container or an inflatable collar, is placed on theanimal. A small diameter sample tube is attached from the samplecontainer to a halter and terminates somewhere near the animal's mouth.When the animal breathes, it exhales metabolic gases as well as thetracer. A sample of air containing both the metabolic gases and thetracer gas is then collected through the sample tube. Since thepermeation rate of the tracer is known and constant, the ratio of theflux of a given metabolic gas to the flux of the tracer gas is equal tothe ratio of the mixing ratios of the respective gases in the air samplethat is collected. The rate of flux of metabolic gas from the animal'srumen is thus readily calculated by measuring the metabolic gas andtracer mixing ratios in the sample thus collected. This technique is notwell-suited for accurate measurements of carbon dioxide fluxes sincebackground concentrations are relatively high and variable. In addition,this technique is difficult to employ for metabolic gases such ashydrogen sulfide or oxygenated organic compounds that degrade duringstorage in sample containers. This system also requires substantialanimal handling and training to be effective. Moreover, it is notpractical for animals that do not tolerate a halter, which may includelarge percentages of a ruminant herd. Also, the system can only providetime-integrated values that represent average rumen catabolic andrespiratory processes. The system cannot be used to track short-termchanges nor can it isolate rumen processes from respiratory processesrelated to catabolism.

Schemes to convert increased ruminant metabolic efficiency intomarketable GHG offsets have not been financially viable. Though mineralblocks, other effective nutrient supplements, and rumen-modifyingantibiotics and ionophores are effective in reducing methane productionand in many cases cost only a few cents per day, at the current value ofgreenhouse gas (GHG) offsets, compliance, documentation, and monitoringcosts exceed the value of the GHG offsets that can be generated. Also,animals fed poor-quality forage have lower methane emission rates perunit time than animals fed high quality diets. However the emission ofmethane as a function of gross energy intake is much higher for ananimal fed low quality forage compared to an animal fed a high qualitydiet. As a result, methane per unit of animal production is much higherfor low quality and poorly digested forages compared to animals fed ahigh quality digestible diet. Specific nutrients, missing from lowquality forage can be supplemented through the use of nutrient feedersto boost digestibility, resulting in increased efficiency and lowermethane emissions per unit of animal production. It can therefore bedesirable to document relative changes in methane emission rates, and itmay not always be necessary to measure fluxes of methane per unit oftime. In other words, changes in ratios of methane compared to carbondioxide for respiration as well as for rumen gas per unit of productionmight provide the information required to document animal performancechanges that lead to quantifiable methane reductions and can generatecarbon credits. However, measurement of emissions of methane and carbondioxide from the rumen and differentiation of this flux frommeasurements of carbon dioxide resulting from catabolism over shortertime periods are necessary in order to track energy flows through aspecific ruminant and to document the efficiency of production of meatand milk in a way that facilitates interactive treatment to improveproductive efficiency and lower methane emissions per unit ofproduction.

With particular regard to cows and monitoring health of such cows, thereare about 1.5 billion cows in the world. Roughly 250 million of theworld's cows are dairy cows, with India having the largest number ofanimals and Brazil being next in overall numbers. The top fifteencountries have roughly seventy percent of the animal numbers. In theUnited States, the number of dairy cattle has been steadily decreasingas a function of higher milk production per animal. The consequence ofpushing animal milk production harder and harder is a much higher annualmortality in each herd. A dairy cow could potentially live for twentyyears, but, on most dairy farms in the United States, animals rarelyexceed an age of four years. The United States' dairy herd produced 185billion pounds (about 22 billion gallons) of milk in 2007, which was asignificant increase from about 116 billion pound in 1950. Yet, therewere only about 9 million cows on U.S. dairy farms in 2007, which isabout 13 million fewer than in 1950. The number of United States'dairies continues to decrease with the number of animals per dairy alsosteadily decreasing. Yet, production rates continue to grow in theUnited States and elsewhere around the world.

Hence, while it is often very difficult to monitor and optimize thehealth of each individual animal. This is becoming increasinglyimportant as each dairy cow (and other ruminants for that matter) isbecoming more and more valuable to a farmer's operations. The need forimproved health monitoring is also evident due to the fact that it hasbeen estimated that annually about 10 percent of all animals in a cattleoperation, including dairy, feedlot, or pasture operations, die fromdiseases. Globally, bovine respiratory disease alone has been estimatedto result in more than one trillion dollars in annual losses due toearly or premature deaths of large percentages of a herd. Earlydiagnosis and treatment can dramatically reduce both the number ofanimals in a herd that are affected and the treatment costs per animal,but, to date, adequate monitoring mechanisms have not been available tothose in the cattle and other ruminant industries.

SUMMARY

One or more embodiments of the invention provide an implementation of ananimal monitoring station that can measure methane emissions and/oremissions of carbon dioxide and/or other metabolic gases such ashydrogen and hydrogen sulfide. Additionally, the animal monitoringstation may be used to diagnosis an animal as having (or potentiallyhaving) a disease/condition such as a lung-related disease and furthermay be used to selectively provide a nasal vaccination to particularanimals (e.g., calves of an age falling within a predefined range for aparticular disease vaccination).

Changes in the ratios of methane compared to carbon dioxide may be usedto indicate changes in metabolic efficiency, and these measured emissionratios and changes in metabolic efficiencies may then be tracked in someembodiments along with additional data which is subsequently stored foran individual animal and/or on a herd basis in the system's memory ordata storage. Further, this data can be routed to a computer wherenumerical models or other calculations may be performed (e.g., withsoftware programs or modules run by the computer) to transform the datainto methane fluxes, fluxes of carbon dioxide, and fluxes of othermetabolic gases that can be measured in the animal monitoring station.In addition, either an internal (e.g., from the animal) or an external(e.g., from an external source) tracer can be incorporated into thesystem. In this case, halters or other devices may not be required, andthe animals may not require handling or confinement while methane andcarbon dioxide and other metabolic gas fluxes are directly measured fromeach animal.

For example, in one exemplary but not limiting embodiment of the presentinvention, a ruminant's gaseous emissions are monitored, methaneemissions are determined, and the ruminant's feed supply is adjusted orsupplemented or the ruminant is otherwise treated to reduce methaneemissions. In some embodiments, non-dispersive infrared instrumentsmonitor carbon dioxide and methane emitted by a ruminant. Alternatively,methane and carbon dioxide and other metabolic gas emission measurementsare obtained using methods such as solid-state sensors, tunable diodelaser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS), open-path Fourier transforminfrared spectroscopy (FTIR), other infrared-based methods, miniaturizedgas chromatography/flame ionization detection (GC/FID), proton transferreactor mass spectroscopy, cavity ring-down spectroscopy, or otherminiaturized mass spectrometry. In other cases, it can even bedetermined through the collection of periodic gas samples, either incontainers or on solid or liquid substrates, subjected to later analysisusing gas chromatography or using many other available analyticaltechniques.

The information thus obtained may be considered by softwareprograms/modules run by one or more computers/processors in the systemalong with animal statistics available from a database stored in systemmemory or otherwise accessible (e.g., via wired or wireless connectionsto a digital communications network such as the Internet or an intranetor the like) and/or from information associated with an RFID tagattached to the ruminant, which may include heritage information, e.g.,whether the animal is weaned, its age, its internal body temperature,its weight and other physiological parameters, animal geneticinformation, and the like (e.g., the RFID tag may have readable memoryor may provide an identifier that can be used to retrieve thisinformation from system, or otherwise available/accessible, data storageor memory). Alternative methods for identification of individual animalsmay include eye/retinal patterns, laser-imprinted bar codes oralphanumeric codes, facial pattern recognition, and gases or chemicalcompounds emitted in the breath or from other parts of the animal. Basedupon the emission information and the other information about theruminant, one or more of the software programs or modules determines asupplement prescription or mix (e.g., particular supplements and amountsof each chosen supplement). The system may then be operated such thatone of a plurality of supplements and/or a particular amount of asupplement or of a plurality of supplements is offered to the ruminantby operation of a feeding station (e.g., control signals transmitted bythe controller/operator of the methane monitoring and reduction systemto supplement/feed dispensing devices of the feeding station).

Alternatively, the animal information may be used to determine thefrequency and/or the amount of a supplement feed or any “bait” to besupplied by the feeder in order to attract the animal, to identify theanimal, and to entice it to place its mouth and nostrils in theproximity of the air intake of the feeder so that the animal's metabolicgas emissions can be qualitatively and/or quantitatively measured.Alternatively, the metabolic gas sampling system can be integrated intoa watering unit, a mineral dispenser, a salt-lick, a supplement feeder,or a bait dispenser, so that the animal places its nose and mouth in aposition to result in a measurement of methane, carbon dioxide, and/orother metabolic gases emitted from the animal.

In a method of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, aruminant presents itself at a feeding station at which carbon dioxideand methane emitted by the ruminant in its breath are measured. Othermeasurements may also be taken and routed into the data logger. Thesedata can be provided by individual sensors and stored in a ruminant andmethane monitoring database. In other cases, these data may be derivedfrom signals read from the animal's RFID ear tag and read into the datalogger. In some embodiments, at least one determination is made aboutthe production of methane by the animal (e.g., by a methane monitoringmodule run by the computer/processor to determine methaneemissions/production and/or to process methane and carbon dioxideemission ratios to determine a current metabolic efficiency for theanimal). Additional determinations which may be made include theidentification of one or more supplements or a mixture of supplementsand an amount or amounts thereof to offer to the ruminant to reduce thedetermined methane emission which would be expected to subsequentlyoccur should the ruminant's diet not be modified. The data collected atthe animal measurement station can be stored in an internal data loggeror it can be transmitted through a wired connection or via a wirelesssignal to a remote location for processing.

According to one aspect, a ruminant methane feed station may beconstructed and instrumented to function in several modes. In oneexample, the feed station includes a hood to restrict the effects of thewind and/or to serve to concentrate the breath of the animal. In thiscase, an animal, such as a cow, would insert its head into an opening.As the animal approaches the monitoring station, a sensor may be used toread an ear tag (e.g., a tag including an RFID chip or tag) to determinethe identity of the animal. Additional information could also bedelivered such as the age and type of animal. Based on this information,a specific nutrient mix could be released by selective operation of feeddispensers at the feed station. In one useful embodiment, the mixture isdesigned to reduce the production of methane by the ruminant. Thedeterminations controlling the type and amount of nutrient performed bysoftware modules run by the computer(s) of the system may be based oninput from sensors mounted inside the feed station and on the ground inproximity to the feed station. Information collected could includeanimal weight in order to determine animal weight gain, methane andcarbon dioxide emission ratios while at/near the feed station todetermine animal metabolic efficiency, and/or additional measurements asuseful to document performance and to generate CERCs (Carbon EmissionReduction Credits).

In one example, the unit is designed to operate based on informationgathered in the field. In other examples, the instrument can beprogrammed remotely and operated by a remote computer containingresident data or the animal monitoring unit can be operated remotely andmanually by a human operator. In one example, the human can access theanimal metabolic gas monitor and observe its operation via a remotevideo link and operate the unit remotely in one example accessing thespecific unit via the Internet. The operator then can use speciallydesigned software to monitor and control the animal monitoring unit. Inone embodiment, the operator can use a smart-cell phone such as a DROID™available from Motorola, a BLACKBERRY® available from Research In MotionLimited, or any enhanced capability cell-phone as an operatinginterface. In another example, the operator can use a laptop computer ora standard office computer with an Internet connection to monitor andremotely operate the animal measurement system.

In another example, in addition to the measurement of methane and carbondioxide ratios in the animal's breath, the insertion of the animal'shead into a feed hood, stall, feed station, or watering station triggersthe release of a specific, controlled flow-rate tracer. The tracer ispreferably in some embodiments an inert gas such as sulfur hexafluoride,butane, propane, or other chemical compound that is measured withinstrumentation installed in the feed station. The dilution of thetracer is used to correct methane and carbon dioxide measurements forthe effects of atmospheric dilution. In this way, the flux of methaneand carbon dioxide can be determined in addition to the metabolicmethane and carbon dioxide ratios.

In another example or embodiment, the animal's breath is used as atracer of atmospheric dilution. Because the breath of a ruminant issaturated with water, changes in water vapor measured by a specificsensor provided at the feed station are sometimes used to documentmixing. Alternatively, mixing could be determined by monitoring othergases or compounds naturally occurring in ruminant breath such as lowmolecular weight alcohols and organic acids. From this information,absolute fluxes of methane could be measured/determined bysoftware/hardware provided in an embodiment of the ruminant monitoringsystem. In another embodiment, diurnal cycles of rumination are capturedby locking animals out of the feeder until specific times of the day.For example, an animal might typically approach the GreenFeed system orfeeding station at a specific time of day. The system could beprogrammed/controlled so that no supplement was provided unless theanimal approached at a different time. In this case, a visual or audiostimulus is sometimes provided by the GreenFeed system when it is “Live”to dispense the nutrient supplement (or attractant feed). The system istherefore programmed to capture ruminant processes at differing timesthroughout the diurnal cycle and therefore define/determine methane fluxbehavior. In another embodiment, the system is programmed so thatspecific individuals are dispensed supplements on alternate time-periodschedules and only a placebo during other time periods. In this way, thechanges in methane emissions associated with the application of aspecific treatment are more unequivocally determined and stored inmemory or in the monitoring/tracking database (e.g., documented).

In a further embodiment, a nutrient block system is provided to monitormethane and carbon dioxide concentrations of tidal breath as well as theeructation of ruminant animals while they are in a pasture. The feedstation or system portion of the monitoring system looks similar to ahooded salt-lick mounted on a short post. The nutrient block may besurrounded on all but one side by a cover. The uncovered side has anopening large enough for an animal to insert its head and access anutrient block or container(s) of one or more nutrients. Mounted underthe hood is an RFID tag reader for activating and reading/receivinginformation about each animal from its RFID ear tag. The nutrient-blockstation may further include a methane/carbon dioxide monitor, a datalogger, and/or a communication device (e.g., a Bluetooth transmitter, acell phone with a modem, or the like). The station may in some casescontain a global positioning satellite (GPS) chip to obtain and collectinformation about location of the unit and the time of day that it wasaccessed by the animal. Again, this information may be stored by thedatalogger at the feeding station or at a differing data storage device,such as a centralized datastore used to store a database collected froma plurality of such feeding stations and/or for a set of animals or amonitored herd of ruminants. In some cases, the system is powered bybatteries recharged by solar cells, although other power sources mayreadily be used.

In one operating method for a methane monitoring and production controlsystem, when an animal approaches the nutrient block station of anembodiment of the present invention, the system turns on for a specifiedtime-period to monitor and document methane/carbon dioxide ratios, theanimal's identification number (such as read from an RFID-based eartag), the time (from a system clock at the feeding station), and/or thelocation of the station (from a feeding station identifier and look up,from a GPS chip, or the like). Based on information collected andobtained and based on determinations made based on the information bysystem software, a supplement is made available via selective operationof feed dispensers at the feeding station to the animal to control,reduce, or maintain methane emissions at a presently desired level(e.g., a goal methane emission level may be stored in system memory foreach animal in a monitored herd and the system may compare a currentlydetermined emission rate with the goal level to determine whether one ormore supplements should be provided and in what amounts to increase,decrease, or maintain methane emission levels for the feeding animal).In some cases, it is likely the animals will consume one to two ouncesof supplement per day, and the amount of supplement consumed per animalmay be controlled by modifying the salt content of the supplement (e.g.,not only prescribing/controlling supplements and their amounts but alsocontrolling additives provided with such a supplement mix to encouragethe supplement(s) to be consumed).

In another operating method for the methane monitoring and productioncontrol system, methane measurements obtained when the animal isvisiting the animal monitoring unit are compared with archived methaneand metabolic gas emissions for this specific animal. If thecurrently-measured fluxes fall outside of prescribed limits, a data flagis produced and a message is sent to the producer/manager notifying himor her that the animal is not functioning normally. In another operatingmethod, when the process described above takes place, the animal istagged with a visual or an electronic tag. For example, the animalmonitoring unit may be coupled to a container that dispenses paint. Whenan animal's metabolic gas fluxes or its composition falls outside ofspecified boundary, the paint unit dispenses paint so that the specificanimal is readily identified for closer examination by workers.

In another operating method for the animal metabolic gas monitoringsystem, measurements for an individual animal may indicate an increasein carbon dioxide emissions with or without a corresponding decrease inmethane emissions. If the changes in the ratios of metabolic gascomponents and/or the changes in the fluxes of the metabolic gascomponents fall outside of specified limits for this animal, an alert issent and/or the animal is marked to indicate to managers that the animalis in heat (or estrus) and that the optimal time for breeding is near.

In yet another method of operating the animal monitoring unit, the datafor each individual animal is combined to determine trend data for theentire herd. If, for example, data indicates that methane and carbondioxide are decreasing for the herd in spite of a consistent diet, thenthe data may alert a manager that key nutrients may be missing thusdecreasing forage utilization despite a constant feed source.Alternatively, long term trends for monitored metabolic gases thatchange for the entire herd can be used to document changes in efficiencythat lead to decreased methane emissions and, potentially, to thegeneration of carbon emission reduction credits.

In another method of operating the animal monitoring unit, the data foreach individual animal is compared to her historical data and/or to theherd average date. If, for example, the animal's methane productiondrops below specified limits for a specified number of monitoringperiods, the animal is flagged for closer examination. For example,these changes could signal the early onset of mastitis.

In another method of operation, the data from the animal monitoring unitcan be combined with data from other independent sensors, and the datais processed to identify and advise operators and managers. For example,the animal monitoring unit could contain a floor-mat within an alleyleading up to the unit. If pressure sensors detect a change in theanimal weight distribution coupled with a change (likely a decrease) inrumen methane and carbon dioxide and (possibly an increase) inrespiratory carbon dioxide, the animal is marked and the operators arenotified that closer inspection for lameness is warranted.

In another example, the animal monitoring unit can be deployed in afeedlot. Sensors can include a solid-state sensor or other sensor tomonitor hydrogen sulfide in the animal's breath. If specific fluxes ofhydrogen sulfide are detected, the operators will be immediatelyalerted, for example, through a cell phone that the feed might containdangerous levels of sulfur-containing compounds and the feeding regimemust be immediately changed.

In practice, the station may be placed strategically in a field near apoint of congregation such as a water source with a typical feedingstation serving a relatively large number of animals such as a stationserving 40 to 100 animals. The system may be loaded with a placebomineral block to document the baseline methane emissions for the herdand the pasture. In this way, the mineral supplement may be added todocument GHG reductions, so that each animal, as well as the whole herd,may be monitored in a very cost-effective way. If exact or more accurateemission rates of methane and carbon dioxide are found useful (e.g.,instead of relative changes in metabolic efficiency), an optional tracerrelease system can be incorporated into the system. The tracer releasesystem utilizes a third chemical species (e.g., butane, propane, or aninert fluorocarbon that would be emitted at a defined rate). Thedilution of the tracer is then utilized to correct for limitedatmospheric mixing that may occur when the animal's head is “under thehood.” This may not be used in some implementations, though, sinceconcentrations of methane and carbon dioxide under the hood will likelybe many times greater than ambient concentrations and efficiency gainscan be documented with the ratio of the two gases without the absoluteemission rate.

In one preferred implementation of the tracer technique, a solenoidvalve is activated by an operator or remotely through an automatedprogram. The tracer release system incorporates a flow-control system sothat the flow rate from the tracer reservoir remains constant. Tracergas is directed to be released near the mouth and nose of the animalswhen they are in the correct position for accurate measurements. At aset interval, the tracer flow is switched to a release point inside theair-collection pipe that collects animal mouth and nose emissions.Because the flow rate is constant, differences in the ratios of thetracer concentration values determine the metabolic gas captureefficiency. This capture efficiency is used to convert the metabolic gasconcentration data into mass flux data. In this example it is notrequired that the exact flux of the tracer is known as long as it isconstant. If, however, the mass flux of the tracer is determined throughperiodic weighing of the tracer reservoir or other methods, the data canbe used to independently assess the flow rate through the system and/orchanges in instrument calibration. If a tracer is used that is detectedby one of the sensors (such as the NDIR methane sensor), then the tracerflow release can be controlled to determine mass flow rate and todetermine changes in the calibration of the methane sensor.

In addition to the generation of high value GHG offsets, the system mayserve as a livestock management tool. The methane/carbon dioxide ratiosobtained provide valuable information about the condition of the animaland of the pasture. Methane and carbon dioxide mass fluxes can be usedalong with numerical models to estimate dry-matter intake,digestibility, and animal efficiency. This data can be used along withproduction data to select breeding stock that produces more meat andmilk on less feed resulting in lower emissions of greenhouse gases andimproved animal welfare and global sustainability.

Concentrations under the hood of the animal monitoring system when ananimal is present are normally fairly high, i.e., much above ambient, sothat measurements of metabolic gas concentrations are facilitated. Thisallows an embodiment of the system to employ OEM NDIR instruments.Although the cost of this type of sensor can reach several thousand U.S.dollars, the GreenFeed station or feeding station will still be costeffective. The fast, sensitive, and automated detection of animalbehavior, animal efficiency, and animal health is likely to improveanimal welfare, decrease animal loses, improve animal genetics forincreased efficiency, and improve the economic sustainability of theoperation. Since the station is automated, the monitoring costs peranimal will be quite low. Because one station can be shared among manycattle or other herd animals, the cost per animal is also relativelylow.

With a GreenFeed feeder, the cow's head only needs to be near the plenumto measure fluxes. It does not have to be in a specific location, andfree movement is allowed and it is still possible to measure massfluxes. The feeder is relatively open to the atmosphere compared to pastdesigns. Numerous intake holes are used in a plenum to capture breath asthe cow's head moves around. The animal is not required to put theirnose in a small restricted area where the intake somehow aligns withtheir nose. The airflow through the GreenFeed feeder is much larger thanwhat is emitted from the cow (about 8 to 10 times (or more) higher). Apowered fan is used to induce this air flow over the food tray orthrough the feeder hood/manger in the absence of the animal (forbackground measurements) or about the animal when one is present (forbreath measurements).

Significantly, the GreenFeed system is configured to measure thebackground gas concentrations and gas concentrations from the animal todetermine the increase in concentrations. In this manner, mass fluxesfrom the animal can be calculated at the GreenFeed station or a remotedata analyzing station/server by using the increase in concentrationsand the total airflow through the system. In this regard, total airflowthrough the collection pipe is measured, which includes the animal'sbreath. Because the animal's breath is entrained within the total flow,the GreenFeed system is not configured to directly measure the gas flowfrom the animal. Instead, gas mass fluxes from the animal are determinedby using the concentration sensors along with the pipe airflow sensorand by applying values from the tracer measurements to the measurementin the presence of the ruminant. Specifically, because the system ismore open, a tracer system can be readily and effectively used toquantify the capture rates of the cow's breath into the collection pipe.Furthermore, since the mass release of the tracer can be controlled andmeasured, the tracer can be used to independently calibrate and monitorthe total mass flow through the GreenFeed system. This allows mass (orvolume) fluxes to be accurately determined even if all of the breath isnot captured.

An infrared or ultrasonic head sensor is used to measure distance of theanimal's nose from the intake. Later, the data can be sorted todetermine when the animals head was in the feeder and how far it wasfrom the intake. In practice, the GreenFeed feeder's measurement andflow system is active most of the time, even when a cow is not present(except when the system is conserving batteries). This allows the dataanalyzing software to determine background concentrations of gaseswithout the cow, so that mass (or volume) fluxes can be determined whena cow is present by taking the difference between the measurementwithout the cow and the increase when the cow is visiting the feeder. Inmany applications, food, supplements, concentrate, minerals or water isused to just get the animal to the feeder, but the feeder is relativelyopen with the animal coming to the feeder in a voluntary way and withoutany handling by an operator (or restrictions on where the animal's headis held during emission measurements). Instead, the feeder dish insideGreenFeed in configured along with the intake so that the animalvoluntarily and automatically places its nose and mouth in the optimalposition for metabolic gas emissions to be collected as part of themeasured mass flow of air through GreenFeed. A sensor in the GreenFeedcontinuously monitors the position of the animal's head and softwaredetermines when the animal's head is in a suitable position for optimalquantitative measurements of emission fluxes. Therefore GreenFeed canmake accurate determinations of emission fluxes without measurements ofthe volume of the animal's breath or eructations.

In one particular embodiment, a method is provided for managing methaneemissions from a ruminant. The method includes providing a mechanism fordispensing feed to a ruminant into a food tray, and then first measuringcarbon dioxide and methane in air proximate to the food tray todetermine a background gas level. The method continues with sensing aruminant proximate to the food tray in the feed dispensing mechanismand, in response to the sensing of the ruminant, second measuring carbondioxide and methane in air proximate to the food tray. The method thenfurther includes, with a data analyzing station, processing the firstand second measured carbon dioxide and methane concentrations todetermine an increase in carbon dioxide and methane concentration. Then,with the data analyzing station, the method includes determining carbondioxide and methane fluxes for the ruminant based on a total airflow andon the determined increase in the carbon dioxide and methane. In somecases, the method may include operating the data analyzing station todetermine, based on the determined carbon dioxide and methane fluxes, asupplement to be presented in feed dispensed by the dispensing feedmechanism to the ruminant to control methane emitted by the ruminant.

In some embodiments, the feed dispensing mechanism includes a gascollection pipe with an inlet adjacent to or incorporated into the foodtray, a fan moving air over the food tray into the gas collection pipe,and an airflow sensor measuring air flow in the collection pipe todetermine the total airflow when the ruminant is sensed to be in thefeed dispensing mechanism. In such embodiments, the method may includeoperating a tracer system to discharge a quantity of a tracer in thefeed dispensing mechanism, sensing a concentration of the dischargedtracer in the gas collection pipe, and, with the data analyzing station,quantifying a capture rate for breath emitted by the ruminant during thesecond measuring step and applying the capture rate to the determinedmass fluxes to generate capture rate-adjusted fluxes for the ruminant.

The gas collection pipe may include a flow distributor providing amixing of the air flow drawn into the gas collection pipe across the gascollection pipe, whereby mixing of the air flow is provided across aflow path with minimal mixing along the flow path in the gas collectionpipe. Further, an inlet plenum to the gas collection pipe inlet may bepositioned in the feed dispensing mechanism to extend upward from atleast two sides of the food tray, and the inlet plenum may include aplurality of inlet holes for directing ruminant breath and air into thegas collection pipe inlet. The method may further includedifferentiating emissions of methane and carbon dioxide by the ruminantduring eructations from emissions of methane and carbon dioxide in tidalair of the ruminant. In practice, the total air flow may be at leastabout 8 to 10 times greater than breath emitted from the ruminant.Further, the step of sensing the presence of the ruminant may involveoperating an infrared or ultrasonic head sensor to determine a positionof the ruminant's head relative to the food tray including a distance ofa portion of the ruminant's head to the head sensor.

There are a number of features of the GreenFeed system that make itunique and useful for many applications ranging from dairy tie-stalls,milking robots, and pastures/rangeland settings. The system uses awedge-shaped polyethylene feeder shell, which may be pivotal in wind tohave its opening (for receiving the animal's head or at least nose andmouth) facing away from the direction of the wind to limit mixing (e.g.,if the wind is from the north, the opening would rotate to face south).The body of the shell may be adapted to receive special “wings” that areinserted on each side of the shell using spacers of the appropriate sizeso that it can be customized easily to fit specific sizes of animal. Forexample, New Zealand dairy cows are typically 30 percent smaller thanUnited States Holsteins. In a system designed for New Zealand, widerspacers and a lower angle for the shell on its pivotal mounting would beused so that when the animal approaches, mixing is somewhat restricted.In other examples, smaller ruminants such as deer, sheep or goats can bemeasured by modifying the dimensions of the ‘GreenFeed system to moreclosely fit the dimensions of the animal.

The feeder utilizes an opening that is designed to keep rain out but tolet in light. At the top of the unit, a Lexan™ or other clear totranslucent window may be provided because cows do not like to enter orto put their heads into dark places. The feeder/manger may utilize bothlight and sound to indicate to an animal whether or not it is eligibleto be measured/fed (e.g., perform RFID-based identification of a cow anddetermine whether it is due for feeding/emission monitoring). Specificanimals could therefore be conditioned to approach GreenFeed when theyhear a specific tone or series of tones and/or specific light signals.If an animal approaches GreenFeed outside of the scheduled samplingperiod the GreenFeed can be programmed so that no tone or sound willoccur, indicating that the animal will not be dispensed any reward.Conversely, GreenFeed could be programmed so that the animals areconditioned to not receive a tone or light signal during programmedsampling periods. In both cases the animals are trained to associate aspecific signal or absence of signals from GreenFeed with a specificbehavior. Over the long run, it is believed that this will keep animalsthat are not due to be measured from blocking the entrance for others.

The system may use measured, dynamic air-flow to sweep metabolic gasesthrough the system and to mix them across the flow path but to minimizemixing along the flow path. This allows second-by-second resolution ofdata so that methane, carbon dioxide, and other metabolic gases can bemonitored and gases from tidal air (lungs) can be readily differentiatedfrom gases that originate in the rumen (eructations). This providesimportant information about lung function, rumen function, metabolism,and anaerobic fermentation processes, and such differentiation providesvery important diagnostic information (such as when a cow may be readyfor breeding, when a ruminant is ill and should be treated, when adietary change such dry matter intake or pasture quality has changed,and so on).

The GreenFeed system may monitor ratios of key gases, but,significantly, many embodiments of the GreenFeed system are alsoconfigured to perform quantitative measurements of fluxes of themetabolic gases of interest. Flux is defined as the mass (or volume) ofa compound, such as methane, emitted per unit time. The reason thesystem is able to monitor flux is because it acts to monitor keyvariables that define the flow-rate and the capture rate as well as theambient conditions and the animal's position with independent sensors.Further, the GreenFeed system is adapted to constrain the mass flowthrough the system as well as the capture rate of the metabolic gas flowfrom the animal by periodically releasing a repeatable quantity of atracer. The tracer (e.g., propane) can also be used as a surrogate toindependently verify calibration of methane sensors. The GreenFeedopening where the animal voluntarily places its head in order to obtaina reward is not designed so that the animal completely blocks theopening. GreenFeed is not designed to directly measure the volume ofeructations nor is it designed to directly measure the volume of gasinhaled and exhaled by an animal during tidal breathing. Suchmeasurements would be subject to extreme uncertainties and errors andare also completely unnecessarily for the measurement of metabolic gasmass fluxes using the GreenFeed design. However, from the GreenFeedmeasurements it may be possible to estimate the volume of the animal'stidal breaths and the volume of individual eructations. Theseextimations for the tidal breath volume require that an animal;'s breathis saturated with water vapor and that background air is not. Foreructations the estimate of the volume of each eructation requires theassumption that the eructation gas is composed almost entirely ofmethane and carbon dioxide and water vapor.

In some cases, the system can operate autonomously outdoors using solarpower and indoors using batteries. Batteries can be effectivelyrecharged by many sources of low-quality power. It is often a problem toobtain high-quality consistent power in a rural area or in a dairy,where large fans and other equipment periodically cycles and createsvoltage drops and surges. High-resolution data may be stored within theunit and periodically transmitted to centrally-located computers whereresident programs process the data to produce results and reportsrelevant to specific operators. Reports provided to a worker couldinclude a simple alert to take a close look at a specific animal (suchas for health or breeding reasons). Reports to the dairy or feedlotnutrition manager could highlight trends in dry-matter intake,digestibility, efficiency, breeding, and the like. Reports to the farmoperator might identify animals with key performance characteristics.

One difference between GreenFeed systems and methods and anything everdone before is that they are highly automated and animals require littleor no training to voluntarily use the system. Further, the GreenFeedsystems and methods are quantitative. The resolution of the dataprovides second-by-second resolution so that rumen metabolism can bedifferentiated from aerobic metabolism. The system is redundant, andflow rates are monitored directly. Flow rates can be calculatedindependently from internal tracers (carbon dioxide and water vapor forexample) and/or external tracers (propane). Propane releases can alsoserve as a surrogate for methane in the NDIR methane sensor so thatcalibration can be tracked and measurement problems can be quicklyidentified. The tracer release can be qualitative as long as it isconstant as the release inside the sampling pipe and near the animal'smouth and nose provides the capture ratio. The tracer release can alsobe quantitative, as the system may be operated to periodically weigh thetracer container to determine tracer loss. Additionally, the system mayoperate to monitor the times when the tracer is released, such that itssoftware processes can accurately calculate the average of the tracermass loss per unit time (i.e., the tracer release). The system and/or asuite of systems can be operated remotely either through wiredconnections or through wireless connections. The system may utilize anInternet or other network interface. The system is designed to beintuitive so that results can be quickly visually interpreted and keyoperating parameters can be manipulated by relatively untrainedoperators.

The system is typically designed to operate an auxiliary sample systemto automatically collect samples conditionally. Any of the variablesroutinely measured by the system can be selected to trigger sampling.Therefore, samples can be collected that represent the sum of severalrespiration events while excluding eructation events. Conversely,samples can be collected that represent several eructation events andexclude as much as possible normal breathing. In addition, the system isdesigned to collect quantitative subsamples where samples are collectedas the gases exit the sampling pipe. At this point, the gases for thesubsamples are well-mixed and capture rates and flow rates are very wellcharacterized. However, the samples have passed through the inletfilter, the mixing elements, and the sample pipe. Thus, it is possiblethat specific components that may be of interest, such as oxygenatedorganics and other sticky or reactive compounds, could be partially orwholly scrubbed from the subsample air stream.

Therefore, the system also has the capability to collect qualitativesubsamples at the manifold inlet very close to the animal's nose andmouth. At this point, gases of interest have not had a chance forsignificant interaction and scrubbing by surfaces; however, subsampleshave not had a chance to become uniformly mixed with air flowing throughthe sampling pipe such that the determination of precise fluxes for thequalitative subsample is more uncertain. However, the qualitativesubsamples are useful for exploratory research to determine the presenceof specific compounds of interest. If the qualitative subsamplesindicate that a compound of interest is emitted by an animal but thequantitative subsamples indicate the compound is scrubbed by thematerials used in the GreenFeed unit, the materials of construction ofthe GreenFeed unit can likely be modified to minimize interferences sothat quantitative fluxes can be measured in the future. For example, tobe compatible with sticky volatile organic compounds, the sample pipecan be constructed of specially passivated stainless-steel and thestainless steel can be coated with fused-silica. If, for example it isdetermined through comparison of the quantitative samples andqualitative samples that the compounds of interest are lost in theparticulate filter located at the beginning of the air pipe, the filtercould be replaced by one made of materials compatible with the compoundof interest, particles could be removed with an inertial impactor, orthe gas of interest could be collected on gas-denuder tubes or otherspecialized analytical techniques commonly used to differentiate or toreduce interferences could be used if necessary. GreenFeed systemsutilizing special materials compatible with more difficult to handlecompounds of interest are likely to be very expensive to build and arelikely to require more maintenance.

In general, many GreenFeed systems are designed to be easily portable.For example, the tie-stall unit can be easily moved from stall to stallby one person. This system could also be used in free-stalls or infeedlots. The GreenFeed pasture unit is mounted on a trailer that can beeasily transported from paddock to paddock and quickly set up foroperation. The unit built into the robotic milking system is notdesigned to be quickly moved.

Greenfeed data processing systems are designed to be flexible and toallow integration with other sensors and data. For example, GreenFeedsystems are designed for easy installation and integration into manybrands of robotic milking systems, automated mineral feeders, andsystems designed to monitor animal weight, animal food consumption,and/or animal water consumption. Briefly, some common elements to eachembodiment are: a system designed to restrict atmospheric mixing;sensors to quantify air flow rates; tracers to characterize breathcapture rates under various atmospheric conditions and animal headpositions; the potential for the conditional delivery of a specifiedfeed, supplement, or water at specified times or when specifiedconditions occur; and the ability to use the data in near-real time toidentify animals that do not meet performance boundaries (set for eachindividual or set for the entire herd). These elements togetherfacilitate quick remediation activities such as delivery of specifiedsupplements to individual animals or to the herd, identification ofspecific animals for expedited inspections, changes in the formulationof general rations such as the daily total mixed rations (TMR) (whichoften comprises the bulk feed for confined animals), and moving theanimals to a different paddock or pasture.

With these above features in mind, one embodiment provides an apparatusfor monitoring methane emissions from a ruminant. The apparatus includesa system or assembly adapted to entice a ruminant to voluntarily placeits nose and mouth in a position that facilitates measurement of exhaledbreath. The apparatus further includes a gas collection manifold with aninlet near the nose and mouth position in the ruminant enticementmechanism, and the gas collection manifold draws a flow of air into theinlet (such as with a fan in a collection pipe or the like). Theapparatus includes a methane monitoring device monitoring methane in thegas collection manifold, including methane concentrations in exhaledbreath of the ruminant and in air in the absence of the ruminant.Further, the apparatus includes a data analyzing station processing themonitored methane concentrations to determine methane emitted by theruminant from rumen metabolism. A container is provided to dispense asupplement into the ruminant enticement mechanism for consumption by theruminant, and the container is typically operable to dispense thesupplement in response to the determined methane emitted during rumenmetabolism. In some embodiments, the supplement is adapted to reduceemission of methane in the exhaled breath of the ruminant.

The ruminant enticement mechanism may include a feeder shell with anopening within which is an intake manifold for receiving the nose andmouth of the ruminant, and the feeder shell may include a wedge-shapedbody mounted to be pivotal in wind such that the opening faces away froma direction of the wind to limit mixing in the feeder shell The ruminantenticement mechanism may include an animal identifier for identifyingthe ruminant, and a light and sound assembly for selectively emittinglight and sound when the identified ruminant is eligible for monitoringor fed via the apparatus. In some cases, the determined methane emittedby the ruminant is a measure of a flux of methane in eructations and inthe exhaled breath, and the measured flux is determined based on totalflow in the gas collection manifold. The apparatus may also include anairflow sensor measuring the total flow through the collection pipe anda tracer release mechanism for selectively discharging a quantity of atrace gas. In such embodiments, the data analyzing station may furtheroperate to determine a capture rate for the exhaled breath andeructations via the inlet based on a monitoring of the trace gas and themeasured total flow. In some applications, the data analyzing stationfurther operates to initiate a report on health, dry matter intake, orbreeding status for the ruminant based on a comparison of the determinedmethane to a threshold methane value.

Based on the above remarks, it is clear that a GreenFeed system has manyuses associated with reducing or controlling methane emissions viasupplements in feed. Briefly, the GreenFeed system quantitatively andunobtrusively monitors methane (CH₄), carbon dioxide (CO₂), and otherselected trace gas mass fluxes from cattle or other ruminants that arereleased from the mouth during eructation and respiration. The operationof GreenFeed is analogous to a highly instrumented, portable “fumehood.” Field operations often include the following sequence: (1) atarget animal approaches the unit and is identified with an RFID reader;(2) a user-specified “bait” is delivered to a specially-designed feedtray and gas intake manifold; (3) the target animal inserts its head toconsume the feed; (4) simultaneously, a fan pulls air at a specifiedmass flow rate over the animal's head and nostrils, through the intakemanifold, and into the air-flow handling and monitoring system; (4) aproximity sensor detects and documents the position of the animal's nosein relation to the air-sampling manifold inlet; (5) continuousmeasurements of CH₄ and CO₂, and airflow are recorded at a resolution ofabout one second; and (6) a tracer is periodically released into thefeeder near the animal's nose and then measured to determine the“capture rate” of gases released from the animal that entered themanifold.

Further, operation of the GreenFeed system includes dispensing a “bait”feed so that the unit is occupied by each individual animal for a timeperiod of between three to seven minutes, which is sufficient time formeasuring multiple eructations. Gathered data are transmitted wirelesslyfrom the GreenFeed system using a cell-phone network to a central serverfor automated data processing. Typically, one system can be used tomeasure emissions from up to thirty or more animals every day. Eachanimal is measured for three to six measurement periods each day. Bymaking periodic and, typically, random measurements from cows or otherruminants during the day and over several days or other sampling period,any error in extrapolating a daily averaged emission rates from theperiodic measurements is minimized.

Instead of limiting its use to controlling methane release, the inventorrecognized that a GreenFeed system may be used and/or modified for usein performing diagnosis and treatment of disease in animals. Thesetechniques could be used for ruminants such as cattle/cows but also formany other animals such hogs and, in some cases, birds (e.g., chickens,turkeys, and the like).

In brief, with regard to diagnosing and treating disease, a GreenFeedsystem may first or initially be used or operated to dose animals withchallenge compounds including gases, e.g., carbon monoxide (CO), andliquids like histamine. These substances are used in allergy, asthma,and pneumothoracic practices to diagnose lung ailments in humans. Theinventor believes or is asserting that a GreenFeed system may be used oroperated to perform similar diagnostic tests on animals in an automatedway to diagnose individual animals such as a particular dairy cow in afarmer's herd. Then, in the case of at least some diagnosed diseases, aGreenFeed system may be operated to treat each individual animal basedon that animal's ID and its diagnosed disease or operated, at least, toreport which animals require treatment to a farmer or other user of theGreenFeed system.

Additionally, the GreenFeed system may be used to deliver nasal vaccinesusing a configuration similar to that used for diagnostics (e.g., fordosing with CO or the like). In this regard, the inventor understoodthat ranchers and others are switching to the nasal vaccines because acow's immune response is immediate or nearly so with the use of nasalvaccines whereas injections can take up to 21 days to confer immunity toa cow. Further, the timing of delivery of a vaccine is important toensure effectiveness. If vaccines are delivered at the wrong time in ananimal's life-cycle, they are often ineffective. To address and overcomethis problem, a GreenFeed system may be used to determine, via healthmonitoring techniques as discussed above but with modifications to suita particular vaccine, when the timing is correct and, in the cases ofnasal vaccines, to deliver the vaccines to the proper animals and in theproper amounts or doses.

In some embodiments, the GreenFeed system is used to screen animalbreath samples for key pathogens. For example, diagnostic sensors mayprovided as part of the hood/manger such as, but not limited to, solidstate sensors on the horizon that can quite-specifically quantify andidentify specific microbes that when present in an animal'sbreath/emissions is indicative of disease in the animal. A significantbody of research has shown that airborne transmission is an effectivepathway to infect animals, especially in enclosed facilities used fordairy cattle and hogs. For example, bovine respiratory diseases infectroughly one third of all calves and young animals resulting in lowerproductivity and in total herd losses of about seven percent. Infectedanimals could potentially be detected at a stage early enough foreffective treatment through the use of the GreenFeed system.

While the particular diagnostic sensor used may vary, the GreenFeedsystem efficiently captures breath samples that can be routed to anydetecting device. For example, samples could be routed to a simplefilter for each animal. The filter could be removed and examined todetect microbial loads. Solid-state fluorescent instruments exist nowthat can detect microbial loads on filters or in aqueous samples.Animals with high loads could be identified by GreenFeed for moreintensive examination. For example, low cost genetic probes may be usedthat identify proteins associated with specific pathogens.

Hence, with regard to embodiments associated with vaccinating, a methodis described and provided for administering a vaccination to an animalsuch as a calf. The method includes providing a mechanism for dispensingfeed into a food tray and sensing the animal is proximate to the foodtray in the feed dispensing mechanism. The method further includesidentifying the animal that is using the feed dispensing mechanism.Then, the method includes determining the identified animal is receptiveto a nasal vaccination for a disease, which may include using theanimal's ID to perform a database lookup to determine whether the animalis the proper age to receive the particular vaccination. When determinedappropriate for the animal, the method includes, via an outlet proximateto the food tray, dispensing a dose of the nasal vaccination for thedisease.

The method may be designed such that the determining step includesmeasuring gaseous emissions from the ruminant, processing the measuredemissions to determine a health parameter of the identified animal, andcomparing the health parameter with a value for the health parametercorresponding to the nasal vaccination. In some embodiments, thedispensing step includes spraying the dose of the nasal vaccination intonostrils of the identified animal via a nebulizer. In otherapplications, the determining step includes performing a database lookupto verify the identified animal has not previously been vaccinated forthe disease.

According to another aspect of the invention, a method is provided formonitoring health of an animal. This method includes, with a proximitysensor, determining an animal has positioned its nose and mouth into ahood of a feeding station. Then, the method includes, while the animalaccesses the hood, discharging a diagnostic agent into the hood.Further, the method includes measuring a level of the diagnostic agentin air flow drawn from the hood while the animal access the hood. Then,with a disease diagnostic module, the measured level of the diagnosticagent is processed to diagnosis the animal as having or being free of adisease (such as with a disease diagnostics module run on a host serveror data analyzing station).

In some embodiments, the diagnostic agent comprises carbon monoxide andthe disease comprises a lung-related condition. In such cases, theprocessing of the measured level is performed over a period of time todetermine a carbon monoxide diffusing capacity for the animal. In otherembodiments, the diagnostic agent is a histamine. In still otherembodiments, the diagnostic agent comprises propane, and the processingof the measured level is performed to determine decay of the propane tomeasure efficiency of lung clearance. In some implementations of themethod, after the animal is diagnosed as having the disease, a step isperformed to dispense a treatment for the disease into the hood.

The GreenFeed system may be provided as an apparatus for vaccinating aruminant. This apparatus would include an assembly adapted to entice aruminant to voluntarily place its nose and mouth in a position thatfacilitates measurement of exhaled breath. The apparatus also includes asensor assembly determining an identity of the ruminant. A nasalvaccination discharge mechanism may be provided with an outlet near thenose and mouth position in the ruminant enticement assembly. Theapparatus may be implemented with a data analyzing station determiningwhether to vaccinate the ruminant based on the determined identity and,based on the vaccination determination, operating the nasal vaccinationdischarge assembly to discharge a dose of a nasal vaccination for adisease to the ruminant via the outlet. The apparatus may be operatedsuch that the vaccination determination is made by the data analyzingstation based on an age of the ruminant.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1-3 illustrate front, sectional, and top views, respectively, ofone embodiment of a system for monitoring and controlling ruminantmethane production/emission (or a GreenFeed system);

FIG. 4 illustrates a method of monitoring and controlling ruminantmethane production and/or emission such as may be implemented, wholly orin part, by operation of the system shown in FIGS. 1-3;

FIG. 5 is a graph illustrating a typical pattern of methane and carbondioxide traces that may be measured within a manger/hood of a feedstation in a GreenFeed system in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention in a ruminant's breath (e.g., during an eructation cycle orthe like);

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate a portion of an embodiment of a GreenFeedsystem using a tie stall configuration to monitor and control GHGemissions of ruminants;

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate, similar to FIGS. 1-3, an embodiment of asystem for monitoring and controlling ruminant methaneproduction/emission (or another embodiment of a GreenFeed system);

FIG. 8 illustrates a method of monitoring and controlling ruminantmethane production and/or emission such as may be implemented, wholly orin part, by operation of the system shown in FIGS. 1-3, the system ofFIGS. 6A and 6B, and/or the system of FIGS. 7A and 7B;

FIG. 9 illustrates schematically another representative GreenFeed systemof the invention;

FIG. 10 illustrates a graph of monitoring results obtained duringoperation of a GreenFeed system, such as that shown in FIG. 9, tomonitor methane and carbon dioxide emissions from a dairy cow;

FIG. 11 illustrates a table 1100 of the daily averaged CH₄/CO₂ ratiosfor a set of 14 cows over a 54-day study at the same dairy and duringthe same test as shown in FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a graph plotting dry matter intake (DMI), caloric intake(VEM), and methane to carbon dioxide ratios for a herd over time toillustrate how management of feed can be used to vary and controlmethane production;

FIG. 13 illustrates another embodiment of a system for monitoring andcontrolling ruminant methane production/emission (or another embodimentof a GreenFeed system) such as may be used in a pasture or range forcattle or other ruminants;

FIG. 14 illustrates another embodiment of a system for monitoring andcontrolling ruminant methane production/emission (or another embodimentof a concentration feeder) such as may be used with a milking robot;

FIG. 15 is a combined graph showing, over a time period (such as amilking session), a ruminant's measured nose distance from a plenuminlet, measured methane, and measured carbon dioxide;

FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary screen shot of a user interface thatmay be provided on a user computer system/device accessing a host serverof a GreenFeed system (such as the system of FIG. 9);

FIG. 17 is a side view (opening side view) of a GreenFeed feedingstation showing one embodiment of a hood/manger with its food tray andsampling inlet plenum;

FIG. 18 illustrates the method of FIG. 4 of monitoring and controllingruminant methane production and/or emission such as may be implemented,wholly or in part, by operation of the system shown in FIGS. 1-3, withmodification to diagnosis and treat disease/conditions on ananimal-by-animal basis;

FIG. 19 is a view of a feeder similar to that of FIG. 14 withmodifications to facilitated disease diagnosis and administering nasalvaccinations; and

FIG. 20 is a method of monitoring and controlling ruminant methaneemission and of diagnosing and vaccinating against disease such as maybe implemented, wholly or in part, by operation of the system shown inFIGS. 1-3, the system of FIGS. 6A and 6B, the system of FIGS. 7A and 7B,and the system of FIG. 19.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The methods and systems described herein are expected to substantiallyreduce the parasitic GHG emissions from livestock and increase grazingefficiency. These techniques for monitoring and reducing/controllingruminant methane production are further expected to have substantialeconomic potential. In addition to animal efficiency gains, actualmethane emission reductions expected based on the wide range ofliterature values may, for example, produce GHG offsets worth from $1 to$20 (US dollars) per animal per year depending on diet and animalgenetics.

FIGS. 1-3 illustrate exemplary components of one embodiment of a system100 for monitoring and controlling ruminant methane production/emission.The illustrated system 100 may incorporate a ruminant ear tag reader 114(e.g., a reader adapted for reading an RFID tag 208 placed on an ear ofan animal 204) so that animals 204 with ear tags 208 can approach thestation 110 and be identified with the shown RFID reader 114 thatprovides data to the data logger 118, with the reader 114 and datalogger 118 being mounted on the hood/manger 112 of the station 110 inthis example system 100. The GreenFeed system 100 (with “GreenFeed”system being used interchangeably herein with labels such as system formonitoring and controlling ruminant methane production/emission and thelike) is in some cases designed to dispense custom formulations into themanger 112 for each specific animal 204 by selectivelycontrolling/operating one or more feed system 120 or itsdispensers/hoppers 122 with feed/chute control mechanisms/assembly 124.

For example, the dispenser/hopper 122 may include liquid or granularsupplement 126 and may be selectively operated. This hopper 122 may haveone or more compartments (with only one shown for ease of illustrationbut not limitation) each containing one or more differing supplements126, and these compartments may be separately operated by the outputmechanisms 124 of the automated nutrient dispenser 120 in response tomethane and carbon dioxide emission determinations (such as by theillustrated CH₄ and CO₂ analyzer 116 that may process releases 210, 214of CO₂ and CH₄ within the hood/manger 112 and provide data or controlsignals to the automated nutrient dispenser 120 and, in some cases,determinations of present/real time metabolic efficiency of the feedinganimal 204. The system 100 (or its software programs or modules notshown but run by one or more onboard/local processors or remotelylocated processors) may also make decisions based on measurements ofanimal temperature (e.g., measured by way of a sensor placed inside theanimal's ear canal (not shown in FIGS. 1-3)) and/or based on animalmetabolic gases measured by the GreenFeed system 100. Numerical computermodels resident in a computer module of the system 100 (such as in theanalyzer 116, data logger 118, automated nutrient dispenser 120 but notspecifically shown) interface with the data logger 118 either built intothe system 100 or operated remotely.

The following sequence describes exemplary operation of the illustratedGreenFeed system 100 during an animal measurement cycle with at leastsome of these steps being illustrated in the example flow chart for aGreenFeed process 400 in FIG. 4.

A GreenFeed system, such as system 100, may include: one or severaldispensers (such as dispenser 122) for specific feed supplements (suchas liquid or granular supplements 126); a monitoring system formetabolic gas emissions from animals (such as NDIR CH₄ and CO₂ analyzer116 and data logger 118 of system 100); an RFID reader (such as reader114) to read data from each animal's ear tag (as shown at 208 in FIG.2); sensors built into a ground-mounted weight scale to record theapproaching animal's weight (not shown in FIGS. 1-3 but may be providedin system 100); solar panels to supply power when main power is notavailable (not shown in FIGS. 1-3 but also may be included in system100); and batteries that are recharged by the solar panels residing in apasture (again, these are not shown in FIGS. 1-3 but are included insome systems 100 to practice embodiments of the invention). The process400 starts at 405 such as by providing the animal feed stations andnutrient dispensers within a pasture or feeding area for ruminants, andstep 405 may also include loading processing software/modules in thesystem to analyze monitored emissions data and, in response, to operatethe nutrient dispenser for a particular animal (such as animal 204) orthe monitored/controlled herd.

Periodically, the system (such as system 100) turns on and makesmeasurements of ambient air inside the manger portion of the GreenFeedsystem (such as the hood/manger 112 of feed station 110 shown in FIGS.1-3 where the animal 204 inserts its head). These air samples are thebackground samples, and sampling may be performed by the analyzer 116 orother devices of a system (such as system 100). The GreenFeed system mayincorporate optional front and side curtains (not shown in system 100 ofFIGS. 1-3) to restrict mixing of ambient air under extremely windyconditions. Alternatively or additionally, the GreenFeed systemmanger/feeder unit (such as unit 110 of system 100) may be made to pivotso that its opening is always aligned downwind. This will help torestrict atmospheric mixing that could cause dilution of metabolic gasemissions and concentrations. The system may include sensors to monitoranimal head position when under the hood, wind speed, wind direction,air temperature, relative humidity, air flow rate through the airsampling pipe, and other sensors. Data from any or all of these sensorsmay be used to determine mass fluxes of metabolic gases through thesystem and animal breath capture rates under typical conditions. Thedata may also be stored and used to select measurements accurate todefined specifications.

When an animal approaches at step 410, the system monitors its ear tagwith a tag or RFID reader at 420 and such reading may awaken the feedingsystem. A computer program run by a processor(s) may be provided in theGreenFeed system that monitors the time of day and determines whether ornot to dispense a specific feed material based on the time of day and/orthe particular animal such as based on the ear tag determination. Insome cases a placebo feed, one that attracts the animal but has nosignificant metabolic effect can be dispensed. The placebo documents thebaseline for the performance of the specific animal. As shown, thesystem may determine at 430 that the animal linked in a database withthe read ear tag has received their daily ration, and, if so, the method400 continues at 436 with the system operating in a standby mode foradditional approaching animals, e.g., unfed animals to dispenseappropriate nutrients. The animal may be provided an indication of itseligibility to receive feed material by a system of visual and/or audiocues. Visual cues can include specific colors. Audio cues can includespecific tones. Tones and colors can be associated with specific animalmonitoring unit operations.

After the RFID tag is read at 420, the system (or its monitoringsoftware) may determine at 440 that the animal associated with the readear tag has not received its daily ration of the methane controlling orother nutrients. In some cases or implementations of process 400, thetag number of the ear tag (e.g., a 15-digit number or the like) may berecorded in the data logger as shown at 450. At 444, based on a lookupin a database for the particular animal, the automated nutrientdispenser may be operated to dispense feed and/or nutrient supplements,and the amount of feed and/or supplements dispensed may be recorded tothe data logger or other data storage device in the GreenFeed system asshown at 450.

At 460, a separate sensor/detector associated with the feed station orthe RFID reader may trigger the gas and/or other monitoringinstrumentation to turn on. The monitors (such as analyzer 116 in system100) can either be mounted within the GreenFeed hood and/or they can belocated remotely, and air samples collected from within the GreenFeedhood and manger can be routed to the analytical instruments. In oneimplementation, measurements are made as shown at steps 470 and 476 ofmethane, carbon dioxide, and water vapor such as with the sensor and/ormeasurement devices shown in FIGS. 1-3. In addition, animal weight,animal milk production, animal core temperature, and other data can berouted to the data logger (such as data logger 118 of system 100) andcomputer system of the illustrated feeding station of FIGS. 1-3.

These data may then be transferred to a computer program or series ofprograms in which numerical models are run such as within the dataanalyzing station 490 to result in or produce decisions about the typesand amounts of specific antibiotics, and/or nutrient supplements todispense at step 444 in the next or current feeding of animal or accessof a feed station (e.g., provide a particular “prescription” or “diet”of supplements and the like to dispense at this time to this particularanimal based, typically, on the methane emissions detected and/or onmetabolic efficiency of the animal). Alternatively, these data may beused to identify individual animals that are at risk or in the earlystages of diseases. In other cases, these data may be used alone or incombination with other external data to identify animals that are likelyto be in heat. In still other cases (or additionally), these data may beused alone or in conjunction with other data to identify animals thatachieve higher production efficiencies and, thus, could, for example, beuseful for future breeding programs. The gas concentration over time asmeasured in steps 470 and 476 may be recorded by data logger as shown at450 concurrently with or prior to transfer to the nutrient supplementselection program module or programs at data analyzing station 490. Thedata may either be stored at the feeder location or transmitted throughwireless or wired communications to the analyzing station 490.

As shown in method 400, based on the supplement determinations by dataanalyzing station 490, the GreenFeed system (such as system 100)dispenses the required (or determined useful for controlling methaneproduction) nutrient supplements and/or antibiotics or a placebo intothe manger by operation of the feed dispenser/hopper (e.g., the hopper122 with liquid or granular supplement 126 to meter out a particularamount of one or more supplements/feeds 126 as shown in FIGS. 1-3).

The analytical measurement system (e.g., analyzer 116, data logger 118,and data analyzing station 490 and the analyzing stations softwaremodules) measures changes in methane and carbon dioxide ratios. When aneructation occurs, methane concentrations will spike. Carbon dioxidefrom aerobic respiration will tend to increase linearly as the animalbreathes while its head is in the space indicated by the head-positionsensor to be optimal for measurement (i.e. within the restricted space).Since little methane is emitted in an animal's breath, aerobic andanaerobic respiration can be differentiated. FIG. 5 illustrates atypical pattern of ruminant animal breath and eructation cycle. Thisdata can then be compared to data obtained from the baseline case by thedata analyzing station 490, for example, for the individual to determinerelative changes in methane emission rates. A numerical model (e.g.,software module run by station 490) describing animal metabolicfunctions can then be initialized with this data either on a remotecomputer or on a resident computer of data analyzing station 490 tocalculate greenhouse gas reductions.

The methane monitoring and emission control or GreenFeed system mayincorporate a telemetry system to transmit data to a remote computer (ordata analyzing station 490 as shown in FIG. 4) where it may be stored incomputer memory or data storage (such as in a database with supplementand methane emission data collected at the data logger for each animal)and/or further processed for a plurality of animals and/or stations asshown in FIGS. 1-3. The GreenFeed system may include a resident computer(using a processor(s) to run one or more software programs/modules notshown but provided in some embodiments in the data analyzing station 490to cause the computer(s) or their processor to perform particularfunctions) to process data and aggregate the collected and logged datato generate a report of emission reductions and performance efficiencyfor each individual animal. In some embodiments, the system and its dataanalyzing station may function to aggregate data for individual animalsand/or for the entire herd. The GreenFeed system may, in someembodiments, be linked to other systems, such as but not limited to theC-Lock Technology and/or GreenCert™ (U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,457,758 and7,415,418, which are both incorporated herein in their entirety byreference). In some embodiments providing linkage between the GreenFeedsystem and other systems, the ruminant monitoring and emission controldata may be transformed into carbon credits (e.g., C-Lock certifiedcarbon credits or the like) that may be transparent and verifiable. Inother embodiments, the system might send an electronic alert to managersor it might physically mark an animal with suitable paint or a marker toindicate that the animal requires individual attention.

A tracer release can be incorporated into the GreenFeed system so that aknown quantity of an easily-measured trace gas, not generally producedby ruminants, is released into the GreenFeed manger area (e.g., into thehood 112 of feed station 110 in system 100 of FIGS. 1-3 for measurementby analyzer 116 or a separate trace gas analyzer). Exemplary tracersinclude butane, propane, ethane, sulfur hexafluoride and/or many othercompounds that are typically readily available and easy to measure.Propane is preferable since it is easy to purchase and it is a liquidunder pressure so it has a very high gas storage density. Commercialpropane contains an odorant such as diethyl sulfide to which humans aresensitive so that leaks can be detected by the human nose. In somecases, it is desirable to include a scrubbing cartridge containing amaterial that absorbs or that transforms the odorant and traps it toremove this compound from propane so it does not disturb the animalusing the animal monitoring unit. Measurements of the decay of theselected tracer gas may be used to calculate dilution from mixing withambient air. Alternatively, the tracer release can be continuous over along enough time-period so that the steady-state concentration can beused to estimate dilution of the metabolic gas emissions from animals(by the analyzer 116 or data analyzing station 490 and itssoftware/processing modules). In other embodiments the flow of thetracer is alternated from release at the entrance of the animalmonitoring unit in proximity of the animal's breath where it is dilutedby ambient air (A), to release inside of the air sampling tube where airflow rates are independently measured, such as with a hot wireanemometer or a pitot tube system or other device. In this case (B), 100percent of the tracer is captured. The ratio of the two concentrations(A/B×100) defines the breath capture efficiency and can be used tocorrect capture rates for non-ideal conditions where A is less than B.Alternatively, (or preferably) in addition, an animal head positionsensor can be used inside the hood to indicate when the animal's mouthand nose are in optimal position for quantitative measurement. Thehead-position sensors suitable for monitoring head position includeultrasonic sensors and infrared sensors.

In this way, absolute mass fluxes of methane and carbon dioxide can bemeasured or determined (by, for example, the data analyzing station490). FIG. 5 illustrates a typical pattern 500 of ruminant animal breathand an eructation cycle that may be measured or monitored by the NDIRCH₄ and CO₂ analyzer 116 and/or determined by data processingsoftware/modules of the data analyzing station 490 as part of process400. Line 510 represents measured or determined concentrations of CO₂ ina ruminant's breath (as may be measured in a manger or hood 112 in asystem 100) while line 520 represents measured or determinedconcentrations of CH₄ in the same ruminant's breath.

When the animal removes its head from the GreenFeed system (or a hood110), the system may in some embodiments be set to continuously monitorthe air within the manger area (or hood 110) of the system to monitorthe decay of methane and carbon dioxide concentrations to ambient levelsdue to mixing with the atmosphere (such as by operation of an analyzer116 and data logger 118 as described in the method 400 and by processingof collected/monitored data from the animal as described for dataanalyzing station 490 and its processing modules).

For rangelands where many hundreds of animals could be present, amonitoring and emission control system may sometimes be set up to onlyallow selected individuals to have access to the GreenFeed monitoringsystem (or to only monitor and control emissions from such animals basedon identification of this subset of the ruminants via ear tag/RFID orother animal identification). The nutrient treatment may then bedelivered to all animals, with the system being used to collect datafrom a representative sampling of individual animals (e.g., the sameones used to set the nutrient treatment or a differing set). The resultsmay then be extrapolated through numerical models to quantify theresults for the whole herd. In this way, one unit could serve severalhundred animals and not every animal would have to be sampled all of thetime (but, they may be in other implementations). Similarly, thisapproach might be useful in a dairy where several hundred or severalthousand animals are housed. Selected individuals might be monitored toindicate overall feed efficiencies, health trends, and methane emissionsfrom the herd. Alternately, if all animals are equipped with RFID tags,the system may be programmed to select individuals from among the entireherd for random or routine sampling. In this case, the system canutilize light and/or sound to indicate to approaching animals theireligibility to utilize the system.

In brief, systems according to embodiments may be described as usefulfor monitoring changes in relative emission rates. It can supply data tonumerical models to estimate methane fluxes and to calculate GHGemission reductions that may then be converted to or used to determinecarbon credits. The system may use an internal or an external tracer tomeasure mass fluxes of methane, carbon dioxide, and other metabolicgases. The system may be configured in many ways.

For example, as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B (top and side views), aGreenFeed system 600 may be used in a group setting such as in a milkingparlor or barn to measure all individuals at once. For example, thesystem 600 may be incorporated into headstalls 610 or other devices usedto restrict animal movement. The system 600 includes piping 620 to moveor transfer breath/gas samples from a feeding area (which may be hooded)in which the animal's head is located when provided feed 630 to one ormore NDIR or similar analyzers/instruments. As discussed with referenceto FIGS. 1-5, the feed 630 may be selectively modified in system 600based on monitored levels of methane and/or carbon dioxide (as detectedby operation of a CO₂/CH₄ analyzer and/or a data analyzing station andits running software modules) and/or be supplemented with selectnutrients to reduce GHG production/emission.

In other embodiments (not shown), the monitoring and/or supplementdispensing portions of the inventive system are added to automatedrobotic milking machines to monitor methane and carbon dioxide ratiosand/or fluxes of methane, carbon dioxide, and/or other metabolic gaseswhile animals are being milked. As will be appreciated, the monitoringand control or GreenFeed systems may be used in nearly any setting whereruminants access food or water or otherwise place their heads in acertain position for an acceptable period of time to obtain breathmonitoring measurements (e.g., the feed station of FIGS. 1-3 may bereplaced by the stalls of FIGS. 6A and 6B, be replaced or used within anautomated milking system in which ruminants are typically placed in aposition for milking and are often concurrently fed or providednutrients/supplements, and so on). Other places cattle and otherruminants may be forced to or willingly congregate (and which lendthemselves as monitoring/nutrient dispensing stations) and where mixingof their breath in the atmosphere is somewhat restricted may includewater founts or watering stations (that may be hooded or protected fromwinds and mixing as discussed above for the feed stations) andnutrient/salt lick-type stations, and the like. In other words, theterms “feeding station,” “hood,” and “manger” are intended to beconstrued broadly and may generally cover any device or arrangement inwhich a ruminant may place their head for a period of time and theirbreath may be monitored with at least some limitation on mixing withambient air, and, at least in some cases, where nutrients/supplementsmay be dispensed to control or reduce GHG emissions and at least inother cases where the “bait” operates simply as an enticement for theanimal to place its head in the appropriate position for monitoring.

One illustrative system in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention includes a comprehensive measurement and validation system forreduction of bovine methane emission. The system includes a methane(CH₄) measurement technology, e.g., one with the accuracy andreliability that may be used for generation of carbon credits, with oneembodiment of the system including dual gas (methane and carbon dioxide(CO₂)), infrared measurement detectors. When incorporated into anutrient block station, feed station, milking station/parlor, waterfount, or similar implementation and, optionally, combined with astandardized emission credit determination system, the system formonitoring and controlling/reducing ruminant methane production providesa valuable tool for the reduction of methane emissions from bovine andother ruminant sources.

In operation of an embodiment of such a system, a ruminant's gaseousemissions are monitored, methane emissions are determined, and theruminant's feed supply is adjusted or supplemented or the ruminant isotherwise treated to reduce methane emissions. In some cases,non-dispersive infrared instruments monitor carbon dioxide and methaneemitted by a ruminant. The information thus obtained is considered(e.g., processed by software running on a system computer or by a systemprocessor) along with animal statistics available from a database insystem data storage and/or from information associated with an RFID tagattached to the ruminant, which may include heritage information, e.g.,whether the animal is weaned, its age, and the like. Based upon theemission information and the other information about the ruminant, oneor more of a plurality of supplements and/or a particular amount of theone or more supplements is offered or dispensed to the ruminant.

In an exemplary but not limiting method, a ruminant presents itself at afeeding station at which carbon dioxide and methane emitted by theruminant in its breath are measured. Other measurements may also betaken. Along with information obtained from memory such as a ruminanttracking/monitoring database or from receipt of signals containinginformation stored on the animals RFID ear tag, at least onedetermination is made about the production of methane by the animal.Additional determinations which may be made include identification ofone or more supplements or a mixture of supplements and amount oramounts thereof to offer to the ruminant to reduce the determinedmethane emission which would be expected to subsequently occur, shouldthe ruminant's diet not be modified.

A ruminant methane monitoring and control feed station (e.g., aGreenFeed system or GreenFeed station) may be constructed andinstrumented to function in several modes. In one example, the feedstation includes a hood located over the feed manger to restrict theeffects of the wind and serve to isolate and concentrate the breath ofan individual animal. In this case, the animal, such as a cow, insertsits head into an opening in the hood or feed manger. At that time, aRFID or other reader or sensor reads an ear tag to determine the age andtype of animal. Based on this information, a specific nutrient mix maybe released. In a more typical embodiment, the mixture is designedspecifically to reduce the production of methane by the ruminant or tomeet a goal level of such emissions (such as to achieve a particularweight gain). The determinations controlling the type and amount ofnutrient are in some cases based on input from sensors mounted insidethe feed station and on the ground in proximity to the feed station.Information collected from such sensors may include animal weight inorder to determine animal weight gain, methane and carbon dioxide ratiosto determine animal metabolic efficiency, and additional measurements asuseful to document performance (e.g., performance with regard to methaneemission reduction/control and/or with regard to more optimum weightgain or weight maintenance such as for a mature dairy cow) and, in somecases, to generate CERCs (Carbon Emission Reduction Credits.)

In another example, in addition to the measurement of methane and carbondioxide ratios in the animal's breath, the insertion of the animal'shead into a feed hood, stall, or feed station of the present inventiontriggers the release of a specific, controlled flow-rate tracer. Thetracer, for example, may be an inert gas such as sulfur hexafluoride,butane, or other chemical compound that is measured with instrumentationinstalled in the feed station. The dilution of the tracer is used tocorrect methane and carbon dioxide measurements for the effects ofatmospheric dilution. In this way, the flux of methane and carbondioxide can be determined as well as the metabolic methane and carbondioxide ratios.

In another example of the present invention, the animal's breath is usedas a tracer of atmospheric dilution. Because the breath of a ruminant issaturated with water vapor and is released at very close to the sametemperature as the internal body temperature of the animal, both watervapor and temperature (latent and sensible heat) can be measured. Asolid-state or similar sensor can be used to measure temperature andhumidity of ambient air and also to measure the temperature and humidityof the air that includes the animal's breath inside the GreenFeedmanger, other at least partially enclosed space, or even an open spacein some applications. Since the animal's breath is saturated with watervapor, the difference between the water vapor mixing ratio of ambientair and that of the air inside the manger of the GreenFeed system can beused in some implementations to monitor mixing of air inside the feedhood of the GreenFeed system. This measurement of mixing can then beused to calculate the dilution of the animal's metabolic gas emissionsand, therefore, the fluxes of methane and carbon dioxide can bedetermined. Alternatively, fast measurements can be made using eddycorrelation technology. A fast eddy co-variance flux instrument thatmeasures latent and sensible heat flux can be incorporated into theinstrument suite of the feed station, allowing the measurements to beused to calculate dilution due to mixing of the animal's breath with theair inside the feed hood. Dilution is calculated, and the fluxes ofmethane and carbon dioxide from the animal are measured and documentedin addition to determinations of metabolic efficiency ratio (e.g., aratio of methane to carbon dioxide).

In a further embodiment, a nutrient block feeder system (not shown butsimilar in arrangement as the system 100 in FIGS. 1-3) can be deployedto monitor methane and carbon dioxide concentrations of tidal breath aswell as the eructation of ruminant animals while they are in a pasture.The system looks similar to a hooded saltlick mounted on a short post.The nutrient block in some embodiments is surrounded on all but one sideby a cover. The uncovered side has an opening large enough for an animalto insert its head and access a nutrient block or container(s) of one ormore nutrients. Mounted under the hood is an RFID tag reader forreading/receiving information about each animal from its RFID ear tag.The nutrient block station further includes a methane/carbon dioxidemonitor, a data logger, and, optionally, a communication device (e.g., aBluetooth transmitter, a cell phone with modem, or other wireless/wiredcommunication device). The station sometimes contains a GPS chip toobtain and collect information about location of the unit and the timeof day that it was accessed by the animal. The system may be powered bybatteries such as those recharged by solar cells but other battery-basedpower sources or power sources may be utilized in the GreenFeed systemsdescribed herein.

In one method for monitoring and controlling/reducing methane productionof a ruminant, when an animal approaches the nutrient block station, thesystem turns on for a specified time-period to monitor and documentmethane/carbon dioxide ratios, the animal's identification number, thetime, and/or the location of the station. Based on information collectedand obtained and determinations made based on the information by thesystem's software modules or programs, a supplement is made available(by computer-based control of feed/supplement dispensers) to the animalto control, reduce, or maintain methane emissions at a presently set ordefined level, which may be stored in a database and associated with theanimal's ID (which, in turn, may be stored on their RFID ear tag oraccessible via an ID code on their ear tag). Normally, animals mayconsume one to two ounces of supplement per day. The amount ofsupplement consumed per animal may be controlled by the GreenFeed systemby modifying the salt content of the supplement (e.g., releasingadditional salt with the supplement, releasing a supplement with ahigher salt component, or the like).

In some cases, the station is placed strategically in a field near apoint of congregation such as a water source or water fount. A stationmay be used to serve up to 40 to 100 or more animals. The system may beloaded with a placebo mineral block to document the baseline methaneemissions for the herd and the pasture. In this way, the mineralsupplement may be added to document GHG reductions, so that each animal,as well as the whole herd, is monitored in a very cost-effective way. Ifmore exact emission rates of methane and carbon dioxide are useful(instead of relative changes in efficiency), an optional tracer releasesystem may be incorporated into an embodiment of the monitoring andcontrol system. The tracer release system utilizes a third chemicalspecies (e.g., propane, butane, or an inert fluorocarbon that would emitat a defined rate). The dilution of the tracer is then utilized tocorrect for limited atmospheric mixing, which occurs when the animal'shead is “under the hood.” This may, in some cases, not be necessary,however, since concentrations of methane and carbon dioxide under thehood will often be many times greater than ambient concentrations, andefficiency gains may be documented with the ratio of the two gases notthe absolute emission rate. The data is then transmitted or linked to acomputer in which a resident numerical or processing module candetermine methane emission reductions and, optionally, convert thosereductions into verifiable carbon credits.

In addition to the generation of high value GHG offsets, the system mayserve as a livestock management tool. The methane/carbon dioxide ratiosobtained provide valuable information about the condition of the animaland of the pasture. In addition to the generation of high value GHGoffsets, the system may serve as a livestock management tool. Themethane/carbon dioxide ratios obtained provide valuable informationabout the condition of the animal and of the pasture. Methane and carbondioxide mass fluxes can be used along with numerical models to estimatedry-matter intake, digestibility, and animal efficiency. This data canbe used along with production data to select breeding stock thatproduces more meat and milk on less feed resulting in lower emissions ofgreenhouse gases and improved animal welfare and global sustainability.

Methane and carbon dioxide concentrations under the hood of the mineralblock monitoring system are expected to be fairly high, i.e., much aboveambient, such that measurements can be made with relatively inexpensiveand well-tested equipment. For example solid-state sensor equippedinstruments designed to control air quality in buildings or instrumentsdesigned to detect explosive or toxic gases may be useful in GreenFeedanimal measuring units. If preferred, however, an embodiment of thesystem may use an OEM NDIR instrument. Since the station is automatedwith computer-based controls for collecting data, processing the data,and selectively dispensing feed/supplements, the monitoring costs peranimal may be quite low. Because one station can be shared among manycattle or other ruminants, the cost per animal may also be relativelylow.

Useful parameters to be evaluated for methane and CO₂ include adetection limit, a detection range, a response time, repeatability, andselectivity. To determine a detection limit and range, in onenon-limiting example, methane concentrations of 100 ppm (parts permillion) to 2% (well below the LEL) and CO₂ concentrations of 400 ppm(ambient background) to 5% are evaluated. Response times may becalculated by generating a response curve and analyzing the curve todetermine the time for the detector to reach 90% of its peak value basedon a step change in gas concentration. Repeatability of the detector isdetermined by exposing it to step changes between a specificconcentration and a background without challenge gas multiple times. Thestandard deviations of the responses may be calculated to provide aquantitative measurement of repeatability. Detector selectivity isproven by exposures to other gases likely to be present. These gasesprimarily include alcohols from the animal's breath (in the sub-10 ppmrange) and the water vapor in their breath. A potential interferent gasmay be ammonia from animal waste.

Information from the detector and the tracking system is typicallytransmitted from the nutrient block station or other collection stationto a central location where data may be collected from multiplestations. Wireless networking technology is used in someimplementations, with some embodiments using a commercially availablewireless communication solution or technology such as Bluetooth or802.11g (WiFi). Each of these technologies has advantages anddisadvantages, and the appropriate solution for a given application ishighly dependent upon the details of a specific application. The 802.11gstandard is relatively inexpensive due to its wide commercial use andacceptance. This standard uses direct sequence spread spectrumtechnology and is somewhat susceptible to RF noise and interference. TheBluetooth standard is also low cost and is less susceptible to RF noiseand interference because it uses a frequency hopping spread spectrumtechnology. A preferred central data collection unit is a PC or similarcomputing devices with conventional and well-known data storage/memorydevices.

In brief, use of the methane production monitoring and controltechniques and devices described herein is expected to reduce theparasitic GHG emissions from livestock and increase feed efficiency.Changes in methane and carbon dioxide ratios and/or fluxes forindividual animals over short time periods may also identify animals inneed of individual attention for breeding or that are at substantialrisk of being in the early stages of illness. Use of these systems andmethods is further expected to have a desirable and even substantialeconomic potential. In addition to animal efficiency gains, actualmethane emission reductions expected based on the wide range ofliterature values may produce GHG offsets worth from $1 to $20 (U.S.dollars) per animal per year. Actual methane reductions that can beaccomplished can depend on diet, including antibiotics and/or othermineral or nutrient supplements, and animal genetics.

In some embodiments, a precision ruminant feeding and greenhouse gasperformance monitoring system is provided that includes a plurality ofindividual feeding or GreenFeed systems, e.g., that may be spread abouta field for access by a herd of ruminant such as sheep, cattle, dairycows, undomesticated animals such as deer or elk, or other non-ruminantanimals such as pigs and horses. Each station of the system may include:a feed/supplement delivery system and hopper; a feeding station; an RFIDtag and reader system (e.g., an RFID panel reader for use withconventional RFID ear tags for cattle and other domesticated animals); adata logger and instrument controller; and a nondispersive infraredsensor (NDIR) or similar device for determining presence/quantities ofmethane and carbon dioxide (and other gases). Each grain/supplementdelivery system and hopper may take a number of forms with one examplebeing a metal or plastic hopper (e.g., with up to a two-ton capacity orthe like) combined with a feed delivery system/dispenser mechanism forselectively delivering feed and/or supplements. The hopper/deliverysystem may be an enclosed feeder station that is, for example, capableof delivering up to about 4 pounds or more of feed per second. Theindividual feeding stations or hoods fed by such a delivery system maytake the form of one-piece molded poly feeders or the like with, forexample but not limitation, a heavy steel base or other devices forsubstantially rigid mounting. In some cases, each feeding station withits hood and manger is able to hold about 50 pounds of feed and/orsupplement.

The animal monitoring portion of the system may include components ableto identify each animal (such as a tag attached to an ear with an RFIDtag storing an ID associated with the animal, a tag with a readablenumber, a tag with a barcode, or the like) and may also include atemperature monitor such as one that may be mounted with the ID tag orseparately on the animals ear (e.g., a thermistor with electronics, anantenna, and battery for sensing and transmitting the animalstemperature information wirelessly to a receiver on or near the feedingstation/feed delivery system in the GreenFeed system/station). Theprocessor/controller used to run software modules for processingmethane, carbon dioxide, animal data, and the like and for controllingthe feed delivery system may take a number of forms to practice theinvention and, in one case, the controller is a Phidgets SBCLinux-embedded computer available from Phidgets, Inc. Likewise, theanalyzer used to obtain methane and carbon dioxide (and other gas)measurements may take numerous forms to practice the invention, with oneembodiment using an NDIR analyzer (e.g., a CO₂/CH₄/H₂O Analyzerdistributed by Sensors, Inc. or the like) that provides a real time,trace gas monitor able to measure carbon dioxide and/or methane, withparts per million (PPM) sensitivity).

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate another embodiment of a GreenFeed system 700that may be utilized to provide precision ruminant feeding to controlGHG emissions and other parameters (such as ruminant weight gain and thelike) and to provide GHG performance monitoring. The system 700 includesa number of the features or aspects of system 100 of FIGS. 1-3 and thedescription of system 100 may be applicable or relevant to system 700.

The system 700 includes a data analyzing station 701 (e.g., that mayprovide the functionality of data analyzing station 490 of FIG. 4). Datafrom a remote feeding station 730 may be transmitted via wirelesscommunication to the data analysis station 701. The wireless dataanalyzing station 701, which may be a computer with a processor, I/Odevices, a monitor, memory, and software (e.g., programs useful forproviding the processing and other functions described herein), mayoperate to analyze and store the following data in local or remotememory or data storage: (i) ambient temperature; (ii) ambient pressure;(iii) relative humidity; (iv) wind speed; (v) time and date; (vi) CH₄and CO₂ concentrations over time (e.g., ambient and for individualanimals); (vii) tracer gas type and amounts released; (viii) C-Lockcarbon credit type information which may include, for example, datauseful for a C-Lock Ruminant Module such as emissions baseline, changein emissions baseline, uncertainty, and incremental GHG reductions; (ix)animal identification through RFID technology; (x) animal bodytemperature; (xi) animal production statistics (e.g., beef statistics(e.g., current weight, gained or lost weight, rate of weight gain,estimate of future weight, feed efficiency compared to methaneproduction, and CO₂ emissions per pound of gross animal weight) anddairy statistics (e.g., current milk production, increase or decrease ofmilk production, feed efficiency compared to methane production, and CO₂emissions per unit of milk produced)); (xii) animal genetics tracking(e.g., tracking and record of genetics bloodlines as it relates tomethane production); (xiii) record of feed type and ration; and (xiv)formulation of future feed mixture and amount.

The system 700 may further include one or more nondispersive infraredsensors or other devices 702 useful for measuring CO₂ and CH₄ releasesfrom a ruminant when their head is placed within the hood/manger offeeding station 730 (it should be noted that the feed station or itshood may be replaced by other stations such as milking stations in whicha ruminant may insert their head or have their body/head in a particularposition for a period of time allowing breath analysis). In oneembodiment, the sensor(s) 702 may include a 3-beam optical design forCH₄, CO₂, and reference gas within a single light pipe or the like.

The system 700 may also include a wireless data communication device 703mounted on or near the feed station 730. The communication device 703may include a cellular digital modem or common technology to transmitstored or real time data from analyzer 702 and/or data logger 714. Anear tag scanner 704 such as a radio frequency identification (RFID) tagscanner may be placed or provided on or near the feed station 730, andthe scanner 704 may scan and record individual animal data (in its ownmemory or data logger 714).

The feed station 730 may include an animal feeder such as a hoodedmanger or the like that is associated with hopper or gravity feedsupplement bin 711. The bin 711 may have a number of separatecompartments or bins for selectively providing a like number ofnutrients and/or supplements to control GHG production/emission orachieve other goals such as weight gain. As shown, the hopper 711includes three separate compartments with a first compartment 706 usedto store/contain Supplement A (such as a first formulated supplement toreduce methane and/or increase animal production), a second compartment707 used to store/contain Supplement B (such as a second formulatedsupplement to reduce methane and/or increase animal production), and athird compartment 708 used to store/contain Supplement C (such as athird formulated supplement to reduce methane and/or increase animalproduction).

The system 700 further includes a conveyer or gravity shoot 709 linkingthe bin 711 with the hood/manger 705 of feed station 730, and thegravity shoot/conveyor 709 supplies animal feeder 705 with feedsupplement mix, which includes one or more of the supplements/nutrientsfrom compartments 706, 707, 708. The system 700 includes a supplementmeasurement and mixing device 710 at the outlet of the supplement bin711 (e.g., controlling output of each compartment 706, 707, 708 and itscontained supplements), and the mixing device 710 mixes and measuresindividual animal ration from three or more store feed supplements, suchas in response to control signals from the data analyzing station 701(or software/hardware on the feed station 730 such as part of datalogger 714 or the like). Each ruminant (or select ruminants within aherd) may be tagged (such as in the ear) with an individual animalradio-frequency identification tag 712, and the tag identifiesindividual animals to the system 700 (such as by reading by the tagscanner 704 that may provide the data to the logger 714 and/or the dataanalyzing station 701 for look up of the animal's ID, information, andthe like and/or for storage of collected data corresponding to theanimal's accessing the station 730). In some embodiments, the tag 712also acts to monitor temperature of the animal, and this data may beread by the scanner 704.

In some embodiments, the system may also include a metabolic gas intakemanifold to collect the animal's breath and rout it to an air samplingpipe through which air is pulled by a fan and from which metabolic gasesare measured. The air flow inside the air sampling pipe may be mixedwith mixing devices to improve plug flow and to reduce the variabilityof the flow rate across the pipe. The airflow through the pipe can bedetermined by measuring the flow rate with a hotwire anemometer or witha Pitot tube system such as the EE66 air velocity transmitter availablefrom JLC International or the like. Air flow rates through the pipe canbe determined by releasing a known tracer gas within the pipe andmonitoring its dilution. Similarly, the capture efficiency of theanimal's breath can be determined by releasing a known tracer near theanimal's mouth and nostrils as documented by a head position sensor.

In some embodiments, the system 700 may include a hardwired dataanalyzing station 713 in place of or to supplement station 701. Datafrom a remote feeding station may be transmitted via wireless or wiredcommunication to the data analysis station 713. The hardwired dataanalyzing station 713, which may be a computer with a processor, I/Odevices, a monitor, memory, and software (e.g., programs useful forproviding the processing and other functions described herein), mayoperate to analyze and store the following data in local or remotememory or data storage: (i) ambient temperature; (ii) ambient pressure;(iii) relative humidity; (iv) wind speed; (v) time and date; (vi) CH₄and CO₂ concentration over time (e.g., ambient and for individualanimals); (vii) tracer gas type and amounts released; (viii) GreenCertor other carbon credit type information which may include, for example,data useful for a C-Lock Ruminant Module such as emissions baseline,change in emissions baseline, uncertainty, and incremental GHGreductions; (ix) animal identification through RFID technology; (x)animal body temperature; (xi) animal production statistics (e.g., beefstatistics (e.g., current weight, gained or lost weight, rate of weightgain, estimate of future weight, feed efficiency compared to methaneproduction, and CO₂ emissions per pound of gross animal weight) anddairy statistics (e.g., current milk production, increase or decrease ofmilk production, feed efficiency compared to methane production, and CO₂emissions per unit of milk produced)); (xii) animal genetics tracking(e.g., tracking and record of genetics bloodlines as it relates tomethane production); (xiii) record of feed type and ration; and (xiv)formulation of future feed mixture and amount.

The system 700 may further include a data logger 714 on/near each of thefeed stations 730 provided in the system 700 (e.g., the system 700 mayinclude 2, 3, or more stations 730) or at another location in system700. Each data logger 714 may function to record and store data such as:(i) ambient temperature; (ii) ambient pressure; (iii) relative humidity;(iv) wind speed; (v) time and date; (vi) CH₄ and CO₂ concentration overtime: ambient and individual animals; (vii) tracer gas type and amountsreleased; (viii) animal identification through RFID technology; (ix)animal body temperature; (x) animal production statistics, e.g., beefstatistics (such as current weight, gained or lost weight, rate ofweight gain, estimate of future weight, feed efficiency compared tomethane production, and CO₂ emissions per pound of gross animal weight)and dairy statistics (such as current milk production, increase ordecrease of milk production, feed efficiency compared to methaneproduction, and CO₂ emissions per unit of milk produced); and (xi)record of feed type and ration.

In some embodiments, the system 700 may further include a scale or otherweight determination device 715 to determine and record individualanimal weight (or pass the information to the data logger 714 forstoring in memory or to the station 701, 713 for storage or processing).The scale 715 may be used to record gross weight of individual animalslocated at the feeding station 730. Some embodiments of the system 700may also include an audio/visual indicator 716 (on the animal feeder 705or elsewhere). The indicator 716 may be operated by the stations 701,713 or by other control mechanisms to signal animals for feeding time orother events. Further, some embodiments of the system 700 may include atracer gas release apparatus 717 in or near the animal feeder or hood705. The release apparatus 717 may function (in response to controlsignals from the station 701, 713, a local controller such as in theanalyzer 702, or the like) to release a tracer gas as a point ofreference in measuring CH₄ and CO₂ by the analyzer 702 and/or dataanalyzing station 701, 713.

FIG. 8 illustrates a method 800 for monitoring and controlling GHGemissions (and other animal parameters in some applications) as may bepracticed by operation of one or more of the GreenFeed systems describedherein. At 801, an animal approaches a feed station or other monitoringlocation such as a stall or portion of an automated or other milkingstation/parlor. At 802, a sensor may detect the presence of the animal(e.g., a scale, a tag reader, a motion detector, or other animaldetection device), and, at 803, the animal is identified such as by useof an RFID tag reader to read an ear or other ID tag on the animal. Alook up may be performed for the identified animal to determine whetherthe animal has been fed at 805 or unfed at 804. If fed, the feeding orother monitoring station is not operated to dispense food/nutrients asshown at 807, and the animal later leaves as shown at 810. Data maystill be recorded at 811 regarding the animal and their access of themonitoring station (e.g., their temperature, their weight, and otheranimal monitoring information discussed herein).

If at 804 it is determined that the identified animal has not been fedwithin a particular time period, a light may turn on and/or a tone maysound to alert the animal that they are eligible to be fed. At 804 orearlier, the air sampling pipe and fan are turned on to pull air at aknown flow-rate through the animal feed unit. When the animal insertsits head into the correct position as monitored by an infrared or sonicsensor or the like, a feed station or the like is operated at 806 todispense feed. The feed may be chosen based on a prior breath analysisfor the animal to try to control GHG production/emission or to controlanimal production. The dispensed feed, for example, may include aparticular mixture of two, three, or more feeds and/or supplements thathave been determined by a data analyzing station as appropriate for theidentified animal in controlling their GHG emissions (or achieving ananimal production goal such as weight gain, milk production, or thelike). At 808, a trace gas release mechanism may optionally be operatedto release a particular quantity of a known trace gas or gases for usein analyzing GHG in the animal's breath (as discussed in detail above).At 809, the feeding station, and its NDIR analyzer or other gasanalyzing equipment, is operated to take measurements of the contents ofthe animal's breath including GHG emissions.

At 811, the measured data (and other animal data) may be recorded in alocal data logger and/or after transmission to a data analyzing station.At 812, the feeding station resets 812 and awaits another animal. At813, the method 800 continues with the data monitored at the individualfeed or other station being analyzed by software/hardware provided at adata analyzing station (or locally at the feed station or other stationin some cases). In step 813, the amounts of CH₄ and CO₂ may bedetermined for the animal along with ratios useful for determining whichsupplements and supplement/nutrient ratios may be used to control GHGproduction/emission by the animal. At 814, the data may be uploaded to aserver (e.g., the data analyzing station, a server in a network with theanalyzing station, or the like) and at 815, the database storing GHG andother monitored/analyzed data for each animal is updated to reflect themost recent feeding and monitoring of the animal with thecollected/analyzed data being linked to the animal's ID (e.g., a recordmay be maintained for each animal with fields for each type of trackedinformation).

With the above description in mind, numerous other embodiments andparticular implementations will be readily understood by those skilledin the arts. For example, it will be understood that the measurementdevice may be attached to any place where an animal congregates andmixing is restricted such as a passage way or a water fountain. In someembodiments, the system and/or method may be adapted to supportcalculating the methane and carbon dioxide flux from the decreases inconcentration after an animal moves away from the feeder. In such cases,for example, the decay in methane and carbon dioxide concentrations maybe used to establish a dilution factor that may be applied to the ratiosto correct them for mixing.

In some implementations, the differentiation of metabolic carbon dioxidefrom ruminant carbon dioxide is tracked/measured so that these twoprocesses can be quantified and differentiated. For example, inpractice, when an animal is present (e.g., near a feed station, amilking stall/station, or the like), carbon dioxide from her breath willbegin to immediately increase as she respires. Methane and carbondioxide will likely both spike when an eructation occurs and carbondioxide will likely reach an equilibrium concentration between breaths.The slope of the increase, corrected for mixing, then gives themetabolic (muscle) carbon dioxide. The spike includes this but isdominated by rumen methane and carbon dioxide. In some implementations,the metabolic component may be subtracted to more accurately determinethe rumen component. Note, methane in metabolic air results from methaneproduced in the hindgut, dissolved in blood, and exchanged with ambientair in the blood. This methane can be visible under optimal conditionsin some GreenFeed applications.

In some embodiments, measurement of specific volatile organic compoundsmay be important or useful. For example, acetone may be utilized as ameasure of acidosis. The inventor has made GCMS measurements of rumengas and found it to contain a large number of volatile organics, any oneof which could be an important marker for a specific process orcondition and for which a dedicated sensor may be developed and/orincluded in the systems described herein. In some present embodiments orcases, the GreenFeed unit can include a system to conditionally collecta whole air sample in an appropriate container made of Teflon™ film orof specially-passivated stainless steel or in a specially-designed solidabsorbent cartridge to provide a sample for later analysis in a researchmode. In this case, the sample pump can be controlled by the computer sothat it only samples conditionally when the animal's head is in thecorrect position. Alternatively, the system can be set to sample onlywhen the animal's head is in the correct position and the methanedetector is detecting an eructation. In this way, the sampling systemcan be controlled so that it only includes eructations or so that itonly collects tidal breath samples and excludes eructations. A diagramof the GreenFeed conditional sampling system is shown in FIG. 13.Analytical instruments specific for specific gases of interest may beattached to the GreenFeed sampling tube. However, to support commercialviability, a less specific but much lower cost in-situ sensors may bedeveloped and/or used. Further, it will be understood by those skilledin the arts that it may, at least in some applications, it will beuseful to measure background methane and carbon dioxide in the air whenthe animal is not present in order to define the backgroundconcentrations present near the sensor. Such background measurements mayallow these background concentrations to be subtracted from the elevatedconcentrations that occur due to the specific animal being measured toenhance accuracy of the described processes and systems.

In some embodiments it is desirable to utilize two NDIR instruments withdifferent selectivities and sensitivities at the same time. Typically,one instrument will have a longer path-length so that it is moresensitive, offset by a very narrow-band filter so that it is moreselective. The other sensor will have a shorter path length and acoarser filter. Therefore, it may have similar sensitivity, but it willbe less selective for methane. Utilizing these two sensorssimultaneously allows a potentially-interfering tracer such as propaneto be used and since each detector has a different sensitivity forpropane, the potential interference can be mathematically eliminated(e.g., this results in two equations with two unknowns, so theinterference equation is solvable). This system offers the additionaladvantage that if the cows are producing VOCs that could potentiallyinterfere with methane quantification, the responses of the twoinstruments will diverge and the condition will be quickly noted.

With the above understanding of systems and methods understood, it maybe useful now to further discuss exemplary GreenFeed systems includingthose with data analysis tools (which may be web-based or network-based)to allow users (such as dairy operators) to view and manipulate dataproduced by the GreenFeed system. In the following discussion, a numberof specific tests and field experiments that have been performed by theinventors will be discussed as these are believed useful for furtherexplaining monitoring methods and techniques for adjusting feed and/orsupplements to reduce GHG emissions and/or to increase ruminant growthor production levels and/or to monitor animal health.

For example, FIG. 9 illustrates a GreenFeed system 900 in a schematic orfunctional block form. The GreenFeed system 900 is useful for monitoringmethane and carbon dioxide emissions from a ruminant such as a dairy cow904. The GreenFeed system 900 includes an automatic feeder 910 with ahood/manger for receiving the head of the ruminant 904 such as via anopening or hole through which airflow 911 may be drawn during feeding(and breath monitoring operations). The ruminant 904 has been taggedwith an identifier such as an ear tag 908 with an RFID chip, and theGreenFeed system 900 includes an RFID or ID tag reader 920 forinterrogating the tag 908 to retrieve information pertaining to theruminant 904 (such as an identifier or code assigned to the ruminantwhich allows its monitored data to be linked to the ruminant and toallow supplement and feed information for the ruminant to be tracked andlater retrieved/updated).

The Greenfeed system 900 also includes an exhaust or outlet plenum 912through which airflow 911, which includes the breath of the ruminant904, is drawn out, filtered, and exhausted at 913. As shown, though, thesampled or exhausted air 913 (which includes the ruminant-expelledgases) is passed through (or is processed during flow by) a measurementinstrument 916 such as one configured to determine levels orconcentrations of CH₄ and CO₂. These concentration data along withcapture efficiency data and flow-rate data are used to quantitativelydetermine metabolic gas mass fluxes. The data gathered by the RFIDreader 920 and the measurement instrument 916 may be logged or stored bythe data logger 926 at the gathering site. Then, the datalogger/communication link 926 may operate to wirelessly transmit all orportions of the gathered data 928 to a communication device/link 930associated with a GreenFeed host server (computer system) 940 that isadapted to provide the data analyzing station functions describedherein.

Further, there may be many applications where it is desirable for a usersuch as a cattle rancher, dairy farmer, or the like to be able toremotely monitor their herd or ruminants. To this end, a user computersystem or network node 950 may be included in the GreenFeed system 900to allow a user to operate their system/node 950 to access the hostserver 940 via a digital communications network 945 (such as theInternet). The user system 950 may use their web browser to access awebsite hosted by the server 940 and/or use a data analysis tool kit 952running on their system 950 to process data downloaded from the hostserver 940. Examples of data processing that may be performed by thehost server 940 and/or the data analysis tool kit 952 are described indetail below, and the following discussion also provides a number ofgraphs and/or screens that may be provided to or generated by the usersystem 950 (e.g., displayed on a monitor with use of their web browserand/or the data analysis tool 952).

The GreenFeed system 900 may be tailored to fit unique and very specificneeds for individual operators, for example, operators across the cattleand dairy industries. It allows farmers or operators to measure methaneemissions from individual cows 904, which may be significant as testshave shown that certain individual cows within a same herd (and that aresimilarly fed) may emit up to 40 percent more methane than others in theherd. The GreenFeed system 900 allows farmers to identify changes inmethane emissions from their herd (average levels or cumulative amounts)and/or for individual ruminants over time. This is especially useful tomonitor animal health and to provide an early indicator of illness ordisease. It also allows users to measure baseline performance (e.g.,without supplements or changes in diet) and then monitor the changes inemissions as management changes are implemented (e.g., with one, two, ormore supplement mixes, with differing diet changes, and so on), whichmay be particularly useful in projects aimed specifically at reducingmethane emissions. The GreenFeed system 900 also can be used todetermine when their pasture food (or other food supply) has undergone achange in quality (e.g., the methane to carbon dioxide ratio hasdeclined indicating a lower quality pasture food source).

The GreenFeed system may be used to measure, with instrument 916, CH₄and CO₂ emitted from the mouth of the cow 904 during discrete samplingperiods. For example, with use with dairy cattle, samples may be takenwhile a cow 904 is milking, two or three times per day. When used withother animals, a sample may be analyzed at a feeding or watering stationat timed intervals. The required or desired sampling intervals typicallyare dependent upon specific management variables. For example, it may beadequate with continuously-fed animals to use an aggregate sampling timeof fifteen to thirty-five minutes per day so as to define emissionprofiles and changes for individual dairy cows (with thesecalculations/determinations performed by software on the host server/PCand/or the data analysis tool kit 952 (e.g., with web-based emissionanalysis software)).

The GreenFeed system 900 layout may be easily modified for specificlocations based on the existing infrastructure and site-specificrequirements. For example, in dairies with automatic milking robots, theCH₄ and CO₂ sensor(s) may be installed in the robots such that aseparate feeder/hood is not required in the system 900. Specific datalinks (provided by link 926, link 930, and the like) and serverrequirements (provided by server 940) may be easily integrated withexisting software or supplied as useful for a particular implementation.The data analysis toolkit 952 may be configured to provide auser-friendly web-based data analysis tool that allows a user operatingthe system 950 to examine the gathered and processed/generated data andto track the performance (e.g., performance achieved or found for eachmonitored animal) from any location (e.g., any location with aconnection to Internet 945).

FIGS. 10-12 provide results in graph and tabular form that were obtainedfrom a study completed with a GreenFeed system (such as system 900 ofFIG. 9) placed in a dairy. In this study, the GreenFeed systeminstruments were installed in a milking robot. CH₄ and CO₂ emissions(breath plus eructations) from each cow were automatically collectedduring milking. The milking times ranged from 5 to 15 minutes andoccurred two to three times per day. No major maintenance or adjustmentswere required for the GreenFeed system over the course of the test.

FIG. 10 illustrates a graph or plot 1000 illustrating typical measuredvalues with the CH₄, CO₂ measurement instrument over time. In the plot1000, the cow entered the robot or milking started at the time shown byline 1030 and the cow left the robot or milking ended at the time shownby line 1032, which in this example was about 9 minutes. Line 1010illustrates typical measurements of raw CH₄ with line 1015 showingbackground levels, and line 1020 illustrates typical measurements(concurrently taken with the CH₄) of raw CO₂ with line 1025 showingbackground levels. As shown, each peak of the CH₄ and CO₂ corresponds toan eructation event for the cow and lasts about 1 minute.

FIG. 11 provides a table 1100 of the daily averaged CH₄/CO₂ ratios for aset of 14 cows over a 54-day study at the dairy. As can be seen, thecows to the left in the table 1100 have higher ratios, which show thatthe ratios of CH₄/CO₂ may differ significantly within a single herd ofanimals being fed and otherwise treated similarly. In this test “Cow 1”was 38 percent higher than “Cow 14” on average. The effect of a changein feed is also shown by the data of table 1100 as the feed was changedbetween Day 7 and Day 40.

FIG. 12 provides a graph 1200 that plots dry matter intake (DMI) withline 1210 over time and also plots caloric intake (VEM) with line 1220.To allow the effect of changes in the DMI and/or VEM on methane to bemonitored, the graph 1200 also plots values for the herd average CH₄ toCO₂ ratio over the same time period (and for the same monitored herd).Also, the plot shows where a change in feed occurred at 1240 to allow anoperator of a GreenFeed system to readily identify effects of changes inherd management on the CH₄ to CO₂ ratio. As shown for this set of testdata, the herd-averaged CH₄/CO₂ ratios increased when feed was changed(i.e., DMI and VEM were decreased at 1240). The results of the operationof the GreenFeed system shown in graph 1000, table 1100, and graph 1200show that the system (such as system 900 of FIG. 9) may be used toeffectively monitor CH₄ differences and trends over time. Theinformation output by the GreenFeed system can be used by a farmoperator to achieve higher feed efficiencies, lower greenhouse gasemissions, and higher profits.

In general, the GreenFeed system may be thought of as including aninstrumented feeder station that measures real time CO₂ and CH₄emissions from ruminant's nose and mouth such as a dairy cow's nose andmouth. A GreenFeed system may include an RFID or other identificationsystem to identify individual animals such as particular cattle in aherd for monitoring and for control of feed and supplements to thatparticular animal. Each GreenFeed system may include a software tool(s)that functions to record and analyze specific ruminant's CH₄ and CO₂emissions and other available process parameters (e.g., time of day,animal weight, animal temperature, and so on). One design goal of aGreenFeed system is to provide a cost effective tool and method forfarmers and ranchers to use in monitoring the health and in managing thefeeding and production of their ruminant herd.

Expanding upon the above-discussed study performed at a dairy, the dairyused an automatic milking robot that allowed the cows to milk on demand.Each cow was fed a uniquely tailored blend of food and concentrate(supplements), with “continuous” feed over the day. The following datawas collected for each cow: (a) milk volume (per milking period); (b)cow weight (per milking period); (c) daily food intake (e.g., DMI, VEM,food mixture by weight (such as Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Type 4, Type 5,and Type 6), and concentrate weight (Type A . . . Type E or the like));(d) calving date for each cow; and (e) CO₂ and CH₄ emission asmeasured/determined with the GreenFeed system instruments.

Regarding CH₄ and CO₂ emissions measurements during the dairy test, aCH₄ and CO₂ sampling probe was placed or positioned in the robot to benear the cow's nose when a cow was using a feeding trough of a milkingrobot. In this test, the CH₄ and CO₂ sensors were sensors available fromMadur Electronics of Vienna, Austria. CH₄ and CO₂ instruments wereoperated to measure concentrations on a one-second basis, 24 hours perday, including during each milking period and also while cows were notpresent to obtain background levels for these gases. The GreenFeedgenerated and stored records of each cow visit to a milking robot, withentrance and egress times documented, and this allowed measured emissionconcentrations to be correlated with or assigned to specific cows withinthe dairy's herd. During the test, 25 days of emissions measurementswere obtained for 39 different cows, with 26 of the 39 cows remaining inthe study for the entire period.

As discussed above, FIG. 10 provides a graph 1000 plotting exemplary CO₂and CH₄ concentrations that were measured for a milking period duringthe test. The GreenFeed system included data analysis software thatcalculated background concentrations of CH₄ and CO₂ (see lines 1015 and1025 in graph 1000), and these concentrations were found to change overthe test period (e.g., a fixed background level typically should not beassumed or used in CH₄ and CO₂ calculations). The GreenFeed system thencalculated the areas under the CH₄ and CO₂ curves for each milkingperiod (i.e., area under line 1010 between start 1030 and stop 1032 andarea under line 1020 between start 1030 and stop 1302 in graph 1000).For example, the methane area would be a summation over the milkingperiod of: Δ_(time)*(CH_(4Avg)−CH_(4Background)), where Δ_(time) may be1 second, CH_(4Avg) is the average concentration of methane, andCH_(4Background) is the background concentration of methane. A similararea calculation is used for carbon dioxide. Then, the ratio of the CH₄and CO₂ areas was calculated such as on a daily averaged basis for eachcow (with 1 to 3 milking periods). While not performed in the test, itis expected that many implementations of the GreenFeed system will alsomeasure/determine the mass flux of CH₄ and CO₂.

With reference to FIG. 10 and graph 1000, it may be noted thatnormalizing CH₄ by CO₂ concentrations and trending over time is a usefulpractice if certain assumptions are made. First, such normalizingassumes that changes in respiration rates over time are small whencompared with changes in rumen CO₂. Second, from the test and graph1000, respired CO₂ appears to be relatively small in magnitude whencompared to the CO₂ released from rumen as measurements show clear CO₂peaks from each eructation. Third, it was determined in the test thatCO₂ and CH₄ background concentrations typically will vary enough (e.g.,one to two tenths of a percent variation or more over time) duringmonitoring by a GreenFeed system that it is desirable to processmonitored data taking into account these background level changes.

At this point, it may be useful to further discuss results of the dataanalysis provided by the GreenFeed system in the performed test. FIG. 12provides a graph 1200 that may be generated by the GreenFeed system anddisplayed (or output) to a user computer system (e.g., in a GUI on amonitor) communicating with the GreenFeed host server. The graph 1200plots daily herd methane to carbon dioxide ratio averages over time. Achange in feed occurred at time 1240, and, in the test, the change infeed was from a corn/grass mixture to a grass/alfalfa mixture. As shownwith graph 1200 and line 1230, the most significant occurrence relativeto CH₄/CO₂ ratios was the change in feed at 1240 as the CH₄/CO₂ ratiosincreased 24 percent after the feed was changed. The particular feedchange is not as significant for the GreenFeed system as is theeffectiveness in monitoring the CH₄/CO₂ ratios over time to determinethe effect of feed types and mixtures (which often will includesupplements to control methane emissions and/or increase production).

As shown with table 1100 of FIG. 11, the GreenFeed system and its dataanalysis system/software may be used to track for each individual cow ofa herd (or a monitored subset) the methane to carbon dioxide ratio overtime. In table 1100, the data was sorted such that the cows with thehigher ratio values (by average) were placed to the left such that theaverage ratios increase from left to right. Again, this data is usefulfor showing a dairy operator that ratios may vary greatly among cows(which may be an indicator of a genetic factor that may be used overtime to reduce methane emissions or increase herd productivity). Also,the table is useful for showing that the herd average ratiosignificantly increased with a change in feed (in September in thistest), which is useful for providing readily understandable data for usein selecting feed and feed quality to obtain desired results.

The data analysis system may also be used to provide a variety of othergraphs, plots, and data as its output such as for display in a GUI orscreen of the user system 950 in GreenFeed system 900 (e.g., viaoperation of the data analysis toolkit 952). For example, the toolkit952 may operate to produce or display a plot of the methane to carbondioxide ratios versus caloric intake or VEM. Such a plot was providedduring the above test and provided herd average ratios versus VEM bydate (e.g., the ratio for a day was plotted versus a VEM average for theherd for a day). Such a plot may be useful as it links the effect ofchanges in VEM over time to changes in the methane to carbon dioxideratios. In the test, for example, this plot indicated graphically orvisually that the ratios increased with a food switch.

Similar or different plots may be provided on a cow-by-cow oranimal-by-animal basis. For example, the test included operating theGreenFeed System to output graphs that plotted the methane to carbondioxide ratios versus DMI (over time) for specific cows. In the test andwith the change in feed, there were no positive slopes found (or allwere negative slopes over time). The GreenFeed system may be well suitedfor determining the effect of changes in feed supplements, and thesystem may be used to plot methane to carbon dioxide ratios for the herd(or for a particular cow) against amounts or amounts of a particularconcentrate or supplement.

In the test, herd ratio values were found to decrease with increases ina first type of supplement but increase with increases in a second typeof supplement (although this second finding may have been obscured oraltered by the concurrent change in feed). Plots may also be providedfor differing types of food supplement rather than simply increasingamounts of the supplement. In other words, the ratios may be determinedfor a cow or for a herd and the supplement and/or the feed makeup may bechanged based on the determined ratios (e.g., try a first supplement,increase or decrease its amount to achieve a desired ratio, try a secondsupplement, increase or decrease its amount to achieve a desirable(optimized ratio for the supplement), and then choose which of the twosupplements is preferable and deliver at the amount that provides theoptimized ratio).

In the study, the GreenFeed system was also used to provide a graphplotting the methane to carbon dioxide ratios versus VEM with each pointin the graph representing a different cow and its study period averages.This plot was used for “normalizing” for the food switch by averagingeach cow's daily emissions and VEM over the trial or test period. Therelationship of CH₄/CO₂ to VEM when comparing cows was different thanthe relationship for the same cow over the trial or test period. Thisplot showed that the cows that ate more were less efficient in terms ofCH₄/CO₂ ratios, which may be a useful factor to consider in managing aherd using a GreenFeed system. Further, the GreenFeed system was alsoused to monitor what occurred with cows in the days or period followingcalving. This tracking involved graphing the daily CH₄/CO₂ ratios forthese cows in the days following calving, and also graphing the milkproduction for this same time period. In this test, the CH₄/CO₂ ratioswere found to decrease over time after calving. This is yet anotherexample of the type of information that can be readily provided with theGreenFeed systems due to the ongoing measurement of methane and carbondioxide levels for each cow.

To summarize the results of the dairy-based test of the GreenFeedsystem, the instrumentation and software/hardware-based processesfunctioned as expected (and as described above with reference to FIGS.1-12). The instrumentation produced reliable CO₂ and CH₄ concentrationmeasurements over the study period with minimal human interaction. Thedetermined ratios of CH₄/CO₂ varied as much as 38 percent betweenindividual cows with some cows producing consistently higher ratios andothers producing consistently lower ratios (which may encourage breedingof particular cows to provide a more desirable herd with relation tomethane emissions). For the herd, the CH₄/CO₂ ratios increased by about24 percent and VEM decreased by 29 percent for the same time period whenthe food source and amount was changed. According to test results, cowsthat ate more feed were less efficient in terms of gas production (e.g.,higher CH₄/CO₂ ratios). In the days following calving, the CH₄/CO₂ratios were affected. Significantly, changes in CH₄/CO₂ ratios seem tobe strongly or directly related to changes in VEM and DMI, and there arealso effects from concentrates/supplements and feed type.

The following is a further explanation of the GreenFeed system includingdiscussion of its uses and advantages. The following explanation thendiscusses additional embodiments of the feed/monitoring stations thatmay be used in a field (e.g., a standalone, automated feeder and monitorfor use with cattle or other similar ruminant operations) and in a dairysetting (e.g., in a milking station or robot to provide feed/supplementsand monitor gas emissions during milking). The explanation alsodiscusses data that may be gathered and processed and exemplary screensthat may be provided to a user through use of the GreenFeed system.

The GreenFeed system provides components that operate in conjunction tomonitor the metabolic gas composition of animals in a cost-effective,non-intrusive way. Its design and measurement capabilities may betailored to the measurement of metabolic gases emitted from ruminants.For example, the GreenFeed system may be optimized to quantitativelycapture the breath of cattle and to analyze the emitted gases for traceconstituents including methane (CH₄), carbon dioxide (CO₂), andwater-vapor. As a result, the GreenFeed system provides an importanttool for research scientists as well as for those responsible for thehusbandry of animals, especially ruminants, because it provides datathat allows scientists and producers to remotely monitor trace gasemissions, with a high time-resolution in near-real time, from a largenumber of individual animals. The trace gas composition and flux ratesare important and useful for monitoring because they can reflect ordirectly indicate changes in the animal's physical and biologicalcondition. The trace gas composition and flux rates are also importantbecause they can indicate changes in management such as a change in feedcomposition or quality. These changes may be intentional as the resultof management decisions or inadvertent due to mistakes or changes infeed formulations as feeds from different lots are delivered from asupplier. This ability to monitor animal metabolic gases in near realtime can lead to improved animal health, higher feed efficiency, lowerGHG emissions, increased production and lower costs to operators and tosociety.

Consumptive, digestive, excretive, assimilatory, and dissimilatoryprocesses are immediately reflected in the composition of emittedmetabolic gases that is determined by the GreenFeed system. For example,ruminants emit CH₄, almost all from the head-end of the animal. Theemission of CH₄ represents an energy cost to ruminant animals. Ruminantproduction rates of CH₄ and CO₂ as well as rumen emission ratios of CH₄,CO₂, and other trace gases are calculated by the system to provideimportant diagnostic data with respect to animal health, as well as datato help determine each individual animal's or group of animals'production (for example meat, milk and calf production) efficiency.Periodic monitoring of CH₄ and CO₂ gas emission ratios and fluxes viause of the GreenFeed system can potentially provide data which can becombined, by the GreenFeed system or by the user of the system, withother routine measurements (for example, animal weight gain, feedcomposition, milk production, core body temperature, and the like) totrack dry-matter intake, changes in rumen function, and changes inaerobic respiration due to changes in animal activity for eachindividual animal. As will be appreciated, the emissions data can becombined with other data sources to better understand the condition ofeach animal and to monitor any changes that have occurred over time.

Measuring and understanding CH₄ and CO₂ emissions could potentially bebeneficial for a number of purposes. For example, use of the GreenFeedsystem to monitor gaseous emissions and to modify feed or supplements(or taking other management actions) may translate into efficiencyimprovements, early disease detection, more certain estrus detection,improved animal health indicators, and reduced CH₄ emissions. TheGreenFeed system monitors the composition of the metabolic gases emittedfrom ruminant animals to track and more quickly identify optimalstrategies that reduce CH₄ losses and improve efficiency. Before theavailability of the GreenFeed system, it had not been impossible tomonitor emitted metabolic gases without extensive laboratory andanalytical facilities, skilled technicians, and intrusive animalhandling facilities.

With regard to FIG. 13, the GreenFeed system 1300 includes the followingcomponents. First, the system includes a “station” 1310 (such as a hoodor manger or the like) where an animal is likely to voluntarily visit ora place where an animal can be attracted or placed for several minutesduring a day. The “station” 1310 may be, as shown, a feeding stationthat supplies feed or a mineral or other supplement. Alternatively the“station” 1310 could be a water fount where the animal approaches to geta drink.

The “station” 1310 may be designed to minimize mixing of the animal'sbreath with the atmosphere; however, atmospheric air 1307 is alsoentrained into the system or station 1310 and dilutes the emissions of avisiting animal 1304. The GreenFeed “station”, chamber, hood, or manger1310 is designed so that turbulent mixing is minimized. The system 1300does not require an air-tight seal as is attempted with a respirationchamber or a bag or chamber placed over the animal's head. The GreenFeedsystem 1300 works by attracting an animal 1304 to place its head into anapparatus 1310 shaped specifically to minimize the dead volume of theapparatus and to reduce turbulent mixing with ambient air. In oneexample, the opening of the station 1310 is large enough to accommodatethe animal's head.

In the GreenFeed “Rangeland” unit or embodiment of the manger or feedingunit 1310, the unit is roughly wedge-shaped. As the animal 1304approaches, its body helps to block the opening of the wedge. Therefore,when the animal 1304 continues to move forward to reach the reward(e.g., feed, supplement, water, or other attractant), its shoulders andhead somewhat block the opening of the station 1310. Further blockingcould be accomplished with flexible side-curtains of a flexible plasticor rubber material or with a device such as an air-curtain, similar tothose used to minimize mixing in building openings. The apparatus is notdesigned to be air tight nor does it attempt to directly measure thevolume of exhalations of tidal breath or the volume of the animal'seructations. The opening is designed so that ambient air sweeps over theanimal's head, entraining the animal's metabolic gas emissions andtransporting these emissions through a measurement pipe wheremeasurements can be made directly or where subsamples of the air streamcan be routed to instruments for analysis. The wedge or station 1310 canalso be designed so that it is able to pivot into the wind. Therefore,air flows smoothly toward the point of the wedge and over the top andsides of the animal 1304.

In some applications, a fan or air pump 1358 is used to pull aquantified amount of air 1307 over and around the animal's head throughan inlet and through a sample manifold consisting of a series of inletplenums or of a single inlet plenum connected to a central sample pipe1350 and for output into the atmosphere as shown at 1359. Primarily,samples are routed through continuous analytical instruments to measuremetabolic gas concentrations real-time (such as with CH₄ and CO₂ sensors1322, which are positioned in hood/station 1310 and powered by batteriesor a solar power supply 1320). In addition, air samples can be collectedfrom the pipe 1350 via sample port 1356 for later analysis fromindividual animals or the aggregate for the herd.

In one application of system 1300, the instruments 1322 includenon-dispersive infra-red analyzers for CH₄ and for CO₂ for continuousgas measurements. Additional analytical instruments could be included tomeasure concentrations of a wide range of trace gases. Additionalmeasurements could include ambient air wind speed with device 1365, winddirection with device 1360, relative humidity with device 1358, thedirection that the GreenFeed station 1310 is facing with respect to winddirection, the temperature and humidity of the air in the sample pipe1350, and other measurements (with device 1358) that can be used todetermine the mass flow of air through the sampling system and thedilution that occurs due to mixing with ambient air 1307.

A tracer can be incorporated into the station 1310 via tracercompartment 1328 so that when an animal 1304 inserts its head in thecorrect location as indicated by an infra-red proximity, an ultrasonicsensor, or other sensor 1324 designed to indicate the position of theanimal's head inside the station, a trace gas is released near theanimal's nostrils. The resulting tracer concentrations are then measuredin the collection pipe 1350. Thereafter, the same trace gas flow isinserted directly into the collection pipe 1350 and measured. The ratioof concentration of the release near the animal's nose compared to thatinserted into the collection pipe 1350 can be used to calibrate thecapture rate of the animal's breath when it is utilizing the GreenFeedsystem 1300. In one example, propane is used as a tracer. In anotherexample, the tracer system is operated when an animal is not present.These measurements indicate potential mixing and capture ratios underworst-case conditions when the opening of GreenFeed is not obscured byan animal. When propane is used, a cartridge containing an odorantscrubber is inserted so that the odor does not distract animals usingthe GreenFeed unit. However, other gases such as butane or CO₂ couldalso be used. The flow of the tracer can also be modulated so that thetracer signal can be differentiated from the emission of CH₄ and CO₂,although the CH₄ sensor 1322 may also respond to propane. In anotherexample CO₂ is used as a tracer. In this case an cylinder containingapproximately 80 grams of liquid CO₂ is attached to a pressure regulatorand a needle valve to release approximately 30 grams of CO₂ in threeminutes, approximately the same amount of CO₂ as released by a cow overthe same time period. The apparatus is weighed and then is placed inproximity of the feed dish so that the release point is in a similarposition as an animal's nose during sampling. The valve is then opened.At the end of the sampling period, the valve is closed, any condensationthat occurs on the cylinder due to adiabatic cooling is removed and theapparatus is reweighed. The results are then compared with the resultsof GreenFeed measurements for CO₂ as calibrated against CO₂ samplesintroduced directly into the analytical instrument. A successful testconfirms that the capture rate is very close to 100%, that the flowmeasurement system operates correctly and that the calibration gases forCO₂ are accurate.

In another example, a separate sensor that only responds to the tracergas is used. In a third example, two sensors 1322 that respond to CH₄but have different responses to the tracer gas can be used todifferentiate the tracer from the CH₄ emitted by the ruminant. In thiscase, the data is plugged into two separate equations with two unknowns.In other applications, a chemical filter can be used to differentiallyremove the tracer gas at periodic intervals so that both the tracer andthe CH₄ emitted from the ruminant can be calculated. In another example,CO₂ can be used as the tracer and released at intervals that differ fromthe release intervals of the animal, and therefore, the releasefrequency is modulated so that the tracer signal can be identified andremoved from the animal emission signal.

Data are collected on a local data logger or computer or transmitted toa remote computer. Data transmission can utilize an internet connection,cell phone connection, a wireless internet connection, or connectionwith low earth orbiting communications satellites. Data processing canbe all or partially completed on site using computing systems inresidence in the GreenFeed unit 1310 or the raw data can be stored onsite and periodically transmitted to a remote computing facility or anycombination of the two schemes.

Computer software is used to analyze the data and to flag data thatmight be uncertain because of animal head position, wind speed, winddirection, excessive mixing, or other problem detected by the GreenFeedinstrumentation. Software modules are designed to operate the GreenFeedunit, monitor operational variables and collect data from all sensors.Additional software modules to process data, to display the data tousers, and to interface with users in an intuitive way has also beendesigned. A GreenFeed control interface allows remote operation of theGreenFeed system through a computer with an internet connection, or inaddition through a “smart” cell phone capable of connecting to theinternet. Alternatively, data could be stored on media local to theGreenFeed unit for periodic collection and or download.

The GreenFeed system can be powered by line electric power.Alternatively, the GreenFeed system is powered by two 12-Volt deep-cyclebatteries 1320. The batteries 1320 can be recharged from line current,or in one example, the batteries are recharged via a solar panel (notshown in FIG. 13). In one example, the GreenFeed system collects sensordata at a resolution of approximately one second. The station 1310includes an RFID sensor 1326 for reading a tag on the animal 1304 suchthat the animal identification information can be logged and/or sent toa data analysis station to allow the gas monitoring and other monitoreddata to be linked to particular animals 1304. Additionally, the station1310 includes a feed bin 1340 that may be automated to dispense feedand/or supplements of a particular amount and type to suit theidentified animal 1304 (e.g., feed and/or supplements provided by typeand amount in response to previously tracked gas emissions such asmethane to carbon dioxide ratios or other monitored information).

In some embodiments, the GreenFeed system is tailored to take advantageof, or to create, specific locations where animals voluntarily visit,periodically throughout the day, for a period of minutes during eachvisit so that quantitative measurements can be made of emitted metabolicgases. In the following example, the GreenFeed system includes anautomated feeder that attracts the animals. However, as discussed abovethe GreenFeed system may also be incorporated into a milking robot, anda unit based on the same principles and instrumentation can readily beadapted to work in conjunction with watering facilities such as troughsand founts.

While the animals are at the feeding station (or the milking station orother location), ambient air is drawn past the animal's nose and mouthat a measured, specified flow rate and through a sampling plenum orsample manifold into a sample collection pipe. A subsample of this gasis routed to gas analyzers capable of continuous analyses.Alternatively, the subsample could be conditionally routed into a samplecollection device for later analysis of trace gases in a laboratory.That is, the computer can control the gas sampling system based onindependently monitored variables. For example, gas samples may becollected only during eructations or, alternatively, gas samples can becollected only in the absence of eructations. In one example, air isdrawn over the animal and past the animal's head and nostril region at arate of about 63 cubic feet per minute (thirty liters per second)through an air sampling manifold or air sampling pipe fitted with an airpump or exhaust fan. The exact flow rate used is not critical. Forexample it can be slower for smaller animals or for animals with lowerfluxes. However it must be fast enough to entrain a measurable andreproduceable fraction of the animal's metabolic gas emissions, yet slowenough so that the concentrations in the sampling pipe are large enoughcompared to background concentrations to be accurately measured by theanalytical instruments chosen to sample gas from the sample collectionpipe. From this pipe, air samples are drawn through instruments. Forexample, NDIR (non-dispersive infrared) instruments that are capable ofcontinuously analyzing the trace gas concentrations flowing through thepipe at a resolution of about one second may be used, but otheranalytical instruments based on other principles of operation could alsobe used. The flow rate through the pipe and the mixing with ambient airare designed to create mixing ratios that are optimal for the specificinstruments chosen for measurements. In the example described above, themixing ratios of CH₄ typically range from 1 part CH₄ per 1,000 parts airwhile CO₂ ranges from 1 part CO₂ per 200 parts air. These values arehigh enough so that in most cases, background concentration variationsdo not greatly influence the measurements from individual animals.

Additional sensors that can be used in the GreenFeed System includesolid-state sensors to measure trace gases such as CH₄ or volatileorganic emissions, to measure other trace gases such as acetone orhydrogen sulfide, or to measure other trace metabolic gases of interest.In one embodiment, a sensor is included specifically to monitor thetracer gas that is released into the GreenFeed unit close to theanimal's nostrils. In one example, the flow rate of the trace gas can beaccurately set using, for example, an accurate gas pressure regulatorand a flow-control valve. The change in weight of the trace gascontainer can be accurately measured over a specified time interval.From this data, the mass of tracer released per unit time can beaccurately determined, and the mass of tracer collected into thesampling pipe can also be calculated from the instrument responses. Fromthis data, the “capture” rate of gas that is pulled into the collectionpipe can be calculated.

In another example, the tracer release rate does not have to be knownexactly, and it is constant over time. In this case, the tracer isreleased near the animal's nostrils, when the proximity detectorindicates that the animal's head is in the correct position to collect asample of the metabolic gases emitted by the animal. Periodically, thetracer release is switched so that it is released inside the collectionpipe. The ratio of the two values can be used to quantify a capture rateof the animal's emissions, and the mass emission rate of the tracer doesnot have to be known. In one example, the tracer does not have to bereleased for each animal. Rather, the capture rate measured for otheranimals under specific conditions can be used to accurately estimate thecapture rate of an animal under similar conditions. From this data, thenumerical relationships can be established to predict capture rateswithout the tracer release for all of the animals. External sensors canalso be added at a station including a sensor to detect wind speed anddirection and an external (ambient air) moisture sensor. The GreenFeedsystem implements a number of independent methods, each with independentuncertainties that when combined ensure that the uncertainties in fluxmeasurements are minimized. The GreenFeed system is also designed toobtain uniform flow measurements and also to obtain well-mixed,representative analytical measurements.

In addition to real-time analysis of trace gas concentration in thecollection pipe, in one configuration, subsamples of gases are collectedfrom the air flow pipe and stored in containers such as stainless-steelcanisters or Teflon® or Tedlar® bags for further analysis by appropriateanalytical instruments such as gas chromatographs equipped with flameionization detectors to measure CH₄ and other volatile organics. Thesubsample is conditionally routed into a sample collection device forlater analysis of trace gases in a laboratory. That is, the computer cancontrol the gas sampling system based on independently monitoredvariables. For example, gas samples may be collected only duringeructations or, alternatively, gas samples may be collected only in theabsence of eructations. In another configuration, samples are collecteddirectly from the air flow pipe and analyzed directly, without samplecontainers, by gas chromatography, mass spectrometry or otherappropriate analytical instruments.

With ever-changing wind currents and movement of the animal's head, theratio of the ruminant animal's breath that travels up the air-flow pipecompared to the ratio that is mixed into background air or otherwiselost to the system can change. In a preferred embodiment, additionaldata is collected in order to quantitatively characterize the “catch”rate of the animal's breath that is pulled into the air flow pipe.Specifically, in a preferred embodiment of a GreenFeed system, severalindependent strategies are implemented to quantify the catch rates andmixing conditions inside the feeder, including: (a) the profile of theGreenFeed system and the feed tray are designed to minimize turbulentmixing as air blows over the GreenFeed system and the animal using it;(b) a plenum at the inlet to the air flow pipe and air manifold systemusing one (or more than one) plenum is designed to efficiently captureemissions from the animal's nose and mouth over a well-defined regionmonitored by proximity sensors, and the GreenFeed system air sample pipeis designed to minimize dead volume and to enhance the “plug flow” ofthe gases emitted by the animal traveling through the system; (c) an airfilter is placed adjacent to the inlet plenum to remove particulatesthat can affect measurements and sensors and help to create uniformmixing; (d) a “honeycomb” of tubes are placed in the airflow pipe tocreate a uniform cross-sectional flow and to enhance mixing across thecross-section (alternatively, stainless-steel mixing elements designedto create multiple terminal mixing vortices and mixing with minimalpressure drop are placed within the airflow pipe (FIG. 14)); (e) sensorsto monitor wind speed and direction and to document the direction whichGreenFeed is pointing relative to the ambient air currents are utilized;(f) a sensor or a system of sensors, preferably an ultrasonic sensor, isused to measure the proximity of the animal's nostrils in relation tothe GreenFeed air intake plenum; (g) continuous measurements of CO₂ massmixing ratios in the GreenFeed air flow pipe are made; (h) continuousmeasurements of the mass mixing ratio of CH₄ and/or other metabolicgases emitted by an animal are made of a subsample of the air passingthrough the GreenFeed sample pipe; (i) continuous measurements are madeof the changes in water vapor within the air flow pipe compared to thewater vapor concentration of ambient air (since an animal's breath issaturated with water vapor, changes in the water vapor concentrationsmeasured in the air flow pipe can be compared to ambient water vapormeasurements and to the total air flow through the pipe to calculate thetotal flow of metabolic gases through the sample pipe); (j) continuousmeasurements of the air flow rate through the GreenFeed sampling pipeare made, for example, by using a pitot tube and measuring a change inpressure when the air passes through the sample pipe or by using ahotwire anemometer to measure air velocity across the sample pipe; and(k) the periodic release of a small, known quantity of a non-toxictracer gas can be made inside the GreenFeed system to calculate totalair flow rates and to define animal metabolic gas capture rates.=

With regard to this final strategy, to minimize the potential forcalibration errors to affect the calculation of the capture rate, theflow of tracer may be periodically switched from being released in closeproximity to the animal's nostrils to the release of the tracer directlyinto the sample pipe. The ratio of the two values is the capture rate.This capture rate can then be used to calculate the capture rate of theanimal's breath. For example, if the concentration of the tracermeasured in the air flow pipe when injected directly near the animal'snostrils is 8 and the concentration of the tracer measured at the samepoint in the air flow pipe when injected directly into the pipe is 10,then the GreenFeed station is capturing about 80 percent of the animal'sbreath. Therefore, to calculate the total mass emission from the animal,the concentrations of metabolic gases (mass or mixing ratios) measuredin the air flow tube are multiplied by the flow rate through the airflow pipe multiplied by a capture rate of 10/8 or 1.25.

The GreenFeed unit (e.g., station or feeder 1310) can be designed topivot so that it faces the wind similar to a weather vane. The shape ofthe GreenFeed unit typically is also designed aerodynamically tominimize turbulent mixing of air in the feeder unit so that a highpercentage of the gases emitted from the animal's breath is capturedunder a wide range of environmental conditions.

GreenFeed sensors can also be retrofitted to the automatic concentratefeeder within an automatic milking robot. FIG. 14 illustrates aconcentrate feeder 1400 with a body 1404 for supporting a concentratesdispenser as well as other components useful in a GreenFeed systemincorporating the feeder 1400. The body 1404 is configured for receivingan animal's head and provides a feeding tray or trough 1406 in a lowerportion and a head position sensor 1408 above the tray/trough 1406 fordetecting when an animal has inserted its head in the feeder 1400. Atthis point, operation of other components useful for gas sampling orother sampling is triggered. A sheet or pair of air flow blocks orbarriers 1410 may be provided on one or both sides of the head-receivingtrough 1406 to reduce air flow rates and mixing to facilitate collectionof the animal's breath while feeding at the trough/tray 1406. Note, thefeeder 1400 may also be used as a stand-alone unit without the robot,and the GreenFeed sensors can also be incorporated into this device.

As shown, a milking robot is retrofitted with sample intake manifolds inclose proximity to the animal feeding unit 1404. Specifically, thefeeder 1400 includes a gas sampling assembly 1420 including an intakemanifold/plenum 1422 is provided immediately above and adjacent to one,two, three, or more sides of the tray/trough 1406. The gas samplingassembly 1420 further includes a sample collection or air flow pipe 1424with a dust collector/filter 1426 at a location upstream of samplinginstruments. The pipe 1424 may further include a flow distributer 1428to control air/gas flow through the pipe 1424.

A tracer gas input mechanism 1430 is provided to selectively (withcontrols that allow switching) provide tracer gas into trough/tray area1406 for collection with an animal's breath and into the pipe 1424 (asdiscussed above). The assembly 1420 further includes a fan 1440 fordrawing air/breath gases into the plenum 1422 and through the pipe 1424at a desired flow rate. A flow meter 1444 may be included to determineor measure flow rate of the sampled gas on an ongoing or periodic basis.The assembly 1420 further includes one or more electronicdevices/sensors such as for measuring methane, carbon dioxide, tracergases, and other information (as discussed throughout this description).

During operation of the feeder 1400, a representative subsample isrouted through the real-time analytical instruments 1450. In addition, asubsample of gas could be collected in a container (not shown) for laterlaboratory analyses. The specific subsample can be conditionallycontrolled by the computer to collect specific components of theanimal's breath. For example, it can conditionally sample eructations orit can conditionally sample lung emissions, avoiding eructations otherconditional samples can be set. The gas manifold 1420 is equipped withan exhaust fan or other device 1440 to pull air from the proximity ofthe animal's nostrils while in the dairy robot. The air flow iscalibrated, preferably by direct measurement of the velocity using adevice 1444 such as a hot wire anemometer or by measuring the pressurein the manifold using a device such as a pitot tube to measure pressuredrop across a restriction.

In some cases, only the ratios of the metabolic gases emitted by animalsare measured, such as the ratio of emitted CH₄ to emitted CO₂ asdetermined by operation of sensors 1450 and/or software in electronics1450. However, in cases where it is desirable to measure mass fluxes ofmetabolic gases, the mass flow of air through the manifold 1420 and pipe1424 is determined, and the capture rate of metabolic gases emitted fromthe animal is determined. The capture rate can be determined through theuse of an external tracer 1430 in the same way as described for theGreenFeed feeder system 1300 of FIG. 13. Alternatively, the capture ratecould be determined through the release of a tracer attached to theanimal or emitted by the animal. As a further alternative, the capturerate could be determined for each specified set of atmosphericconditions, ambient wind speed, wind direction, and other variables.Then these variables can be used to develop correlations that areindicative of specific metabolic gas capture rates. In this case, thetracer system could be deployed intermittently in order to test andconfirm the predicted metabolic gas capture rates. If a tracer gas isused which can be measured by sensors that also measure methane, it isalso useful to document methane sensor calibration. Interference of thetracer gas with methane measurements can be eliminated by modulation ofthe tracer gas and/or by including two methane sensors with differentialsensitivity to the tracer.

Basically, the GreenFeed feeder 1400 is a semi-enclosure system that isnot designed to be air tight or to collect 100 percent of the animal'sgas emissions all of the time, but within which, air flows and gasexchanges can be accurately quantified under most field conditions. Theair exchange in the GreenFeed system feeder 1400 is optimized so that itis low enough to minimize mixing and, therefore, produce concentrationsfrom individual animals that are much higher than the background andthat can, therefore, be measured with relatively inexpensive, continuousanalytical instruments 1450. However, flows are high enough so that ahigh and well-quantified proportion of the metabolic gases emitted byindividual animals are captured under a wide range of conditions. Inaddition, because of the redundant nature of the measurement sensors(e.g., sensors measuring wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity,air flow, tracer release, animal nose position, CO₂, and CH₄), theGreenFeed station 1400 and an associated system with an analysis stationand/or user system produces data which can quickly be processed andqualified. It is recognized that under specific conditions where thereis erratic and very large mixing, resulting in relatively low captureratios, the data will be more uncertain than data collected under idealconditions. The GreenFeed system monitors enough variables so that datasuspected of having high uncertainty can be quickly identified andsorted so that it does not inaccurately skew the results.

FIG. 15 is a combination graph 1500 showing with graph 1510sensed/measured nose distance with line 1515 from the intake of aGreenFeed feeding station (such as stations 1310, 1400), with graph 1520providing line 1525 showing measured methane, and with graph 1530providing line 1535 showing rumen carbon dioxide and line 1537 showingbackground carbon dioxide over a test period (e.g., a milking operationwith a milking robot and concentrate feeder 1400). As shown, FIG. 15includes a 20-minute snap shot of “Nose Position” with graph 1510 and of“CH₄” and “CO₂” concentrations from the unit 1400 with graphs 1520,1530. This data represents a series of different animals. As GreenFeedsystems are used in the field, new potential uses of the data arebecoming evident to the inventors. In FIG. 3, each eructation event isapparent in the data from the CH₄ concentration peaks (every 30-40seconds). It is also possible to note the metabolic CO₂ emissions ratesand CO₂ spikes that are emitted with the CH₄ peak. It is believed thatthe CO₂ spikes shown in line 1535 are associated with the CH₄ peaksshown in line 1525 originated from the rumen, and the difference withbackground at line 1537 is metabolic CO₂, as illustrated. In someembodiments of the GreenFeed system, changes in humidity associated withthe animal's breath are also measured over time, and the measuredhumidity is used to provide an “internal tracer” to determine uniformityemissions measurement from an animal.

Typically, as was shown by testing and graphs by the inventors, a cowenters a GreenFeed feeder and does not immediately eructate. However,the concentration of CH₄ increases a small amount before an eructationoccurs. It is believed that this increase is associated with CH₄expelled through the lungs, which is a normal part of the physiologicalprocess. It, therefore, is possible and practical to estimate the ratioof lung CH₄ compared to eructated CH₄ so as to provide a more accuratecalculation of the CH₄ expelled as part of eructation alone (which canbe controlled through the management of supplements, concentrates, feed,and the like as described in detailed herein).

Through the operation of a GreenFeed system, such as system 900 of FIG.9, an operator or user of the system may readily view and manipulatemonitored or tracked data on their herd. For example, FIG. 16illustrates a screen shot 1600 that may be displayed on the user system950, and the screen shot 1600 may be populated by data provided by thehost server 940 over network 945. In some embodiments, the data analysistool kit 952 processes this received data to generate one or more tablesand graphs as discussed above and/or as shown in exemplary screen shot1600.

Once the GreenFeed system 900 collects the data, the data is sentthrough a wireless link (926 to 930), e.g., over the Internet 945, tosecure computer servers 940. The data is then automatically processedand the results are calculated for each animal at host server 940 withdata analysis software that functions as described herein. The user withsystem 950 can access and archive the data in their own database onsystem 950, through a user-friendly, secure, web-based interface (whichmay be provided by server 940 and/or tool kit 952). The raw data is alsomade available in a “.csv” file format from server 940 to user system950 via network 945 so researchers can complete their own analysis withthe data on system 950 with the tool kit software 952.

FIG. 16 shows one exemplary screen-shot of the web-based user interfacethat is available with a GreenFeed system 900. As shown, the interfaceprovided in screen shot 1600 includes a data selection portion 1610 inwhich a user of system 950 can select which data to view and manipulate.In this example, the user has selected a set or group of animals whichmay be an entire herd or a subset of a herd of ruminants. Then, withinthe selected group of animals the user can use a drop down or otherentry device to select all (herd average values and so on) or to chooseto inspect a particular animal as shown in FIG. 16. The data selectionarea 1610 may also be used to select a particular day or range of days(or a time period) for the data to be retrieved and processed viainterface 1600 and use of tool kit software 952.

The interface 1600 also includes a window or portion 1620 showing agraph of the monitored methane concentrations for the chosen herd oranimal in data selection window/portion 1610 over the time periodchosen. Window 1630 is a table populated with times of sampling for theherd/animal and the results of the sampling including methane and carbondioxide concentrations (which may calculated as discussed above). Thetable of window 1630 also shows a calculated methane to carbon dioxideratio for the herd/animal at each sampling time. Additional data may beillustrated in interface 1600 such as the battery voltage (as shown) orother sampling parameters such as humidity, wind speed, animaltemperature, and the like.

The user of the system 950 and its data analysis tool kit 952 mayfurther process the received data from the GreenFeed server 940 togenerate a number of graphs to provide visual representations of thetracked animal data. For example, the interface 1600 is shown to includea window 1640 with a graph showing methane and carbon dioxideconcentrations over a selected time (such as a particular milking periodor feeding station visit), and this chart shows the concentrations in anoverlapping manner that correlated measured peak concentrations duringeach eructation. Another window/area 1650 may be used by the tool kit952 to provide a graph of the calculated methane to carbon dioxideratios for the herd/animal such as during the same time period used inthe graph of window 1640 or another separately selected time period. Aswill be appreciated, the GreenFeed system provides a powerful tool fornot only collecting data on a herd and individual animal basis but alsofor access, viewing, and manipulating the gathered data to make herdmanagement decisions in a well-informed manner (e.g., change feed orsupplements for an animal or herd based on collected and processed data,choose animals for breeding based on genetic factors causing the animalsto be more efficient in processing their food and/or having morefavorable rumen gas releases, and so on).

At this point, it may be useful to discuss a few of the advantages anduseful functions of a typical GreenFeed system. Although the GreenFeedsystems and processes are entirely new, each component of the system hasbeen extensively-tested and the operating envelopes of each sensor arewell-characterized and understood. Also, the inventors' measurements ofCO₂, CH₄, and the tracer with the GreenFeed system can be traced back togravimetric standards. NDIR instruments have been available for a longtime and their performance in humid environments at the concentrationsencountered in GreenFeed is well-documented.

GreenFeed systems can operate to provide data that is unique andcomplimentary to other methods, e.g., GreenFeed systems providesnapshots in time of CH₄ and CO₂ emissions from individual animals. Manyanimals can be tracked over long time-periods with little intrusion onthe animal's normal routine. A typical GreenFeed system does not providecontinuous data for all animals, all day, every day. However, it can beoperated to provide real-field data for many animals every day. Thisdata is ideal to initialize, anchor, and calibrate models that cantherefore more-accurately predict diurnal fluxes. In addition, aGreenFeed system as described herein can very quickly, cost-effectively,and unobtrusively identify changes in the rumen and metabolic behaviorof individual animals over time. In general, a primary advantage of theGreenFeed system is that it is much easier and less expensive to gatheremissions data from a large number of individuals without significanthanding of the animals or the associated set-up time, analytical work,and costs. GreenFeed systems are also robust and simple to maintain overa long time-period so the systems can be useful for long-term studies.In addition, components of a GreenFeed system are portable and can beeasily moved to new locations as research demands change.

In practice and use, the rations automatically dispensed by a GreenFeedsystem influence the rumen biology and/or grazing behavior. For example,on very good pasture in South Dakota, animals will still visit aGreenFeed feeder for several minutes each day to consume a supplementaryration of a few cups of alfalfa pellets and have their breath sampledfor emissions. In this case, the small amount of “bait” fed to eachindividual is so similar to the actual forage in composition that thebait will not significantly impact rumen function. Alternatively, theGreenFeed system with its feeder stations/mangers could be set up todeliver a specific mineral mix, feed supplement, or antibiotic to onlyselect animals in the herd. The results on CH₄ and CO₂ can be monitoredwith the GreenFeed system. The potential applications, treatment, anddeployment options are only limited by a system operator's creativityand their project goals.

Numerous studies can be completed with a GreenFeed system. Monitoringruminant metabolic gas emissions provides insight into rumen biology aswell as in catabolic and anabolic processes. For example, the dataindicates that a GreenFeed system can help to differentiate CH₄ and CO₂produced in the rumen from CH₄ and CO₂ emitted directly from the lungs.This data is likely to be quite sensitive to any physiological orbehavioral changes that might occur in each individual animal.Therefore, there should be many potential research applications ofGreenFeed to enhance the efficiency, improve animal welfare, studyanimal heath but simultaneously to lower costs for individual producersin the animal husbandry industry.

One study may be performed using a GreenFeed system to study CH₄production and dry matter intake (DMI). Past studies have found that CH₄production is closely related to DMI for individual animals. Therefore,the CH₄ measurements obtained from GreenFeed may be used/processed bythe GreenFeed data analysis software to estimate the amount of DMI forspecific animals in a herd, especially relative to each other. TheGreenFeed system may also provide a reasonable estimate in apasture/range system where it is difficult to estimate DMI for specificanimals.

In another case, a GreenFeed system may be used to study CH₄ and CO₂emissions in relation to disease detection and prevention. Since DMI forindividual animals is linked to CH₄ production, health conditions thatimpact DMI may be quickly reflected in the CH₄ and CO₂ fluxes. Changesin fluxes, monitored by a GreenFeed system, then could be used toquickly alert the producer of a potential problem (e.g., the GreenFeedserver could issue alert communications when predefined thresholdchanges in fluxes are detected or such an alert may be set on the usersystem in their data analysis tool kit), which may limit treatment costsand productivity declines. In addition, it is also likely that specificrespiratory diseases that limit efficient lung-air exchange will bereflected as changes in respiratory CH₄ and CO₂ compared to rumen CH₄and CO₂. The GreenFeed system may provide data to quickly andeffectively monitor such changes.

In another example, a GreenFeed system may be used to study CH₄production, diet, and supplements. CH₄ emissions represent lostefficiency to the animal. In addition, CH₄ is a greenhouse gas. ReducingCH₄ emissions both increases productivity and reduces greenhouse gasemissions. It is well understood that certain feeding strategies andsupplements can potentially reduce greenhouse gas emissions. GreenFeedcan be used to document the effectiveness of specific treatments and tomanage which feeds and supplements are provided to animals in responseto measured methane emissions by particular animals or by a herd.

In one study example, a GreenFeed system is used to study CH₄, CO₂, andanimal efficiency. It is well-documented that the CH₄ losses ofindividual animals under identical conditions can vary from each othersignificantly. The GreenFeed system is ideal for monitoring thesedifferences. Further, GreenFeed-collected and processed data can help todetermine the causes of efficiency differences observed to help answerquestions such as: “Are CH₄ and CO₂ flux differences due to environment,behavior, or genetics?”

In another study example, a GreenFeed system may be used to study CO₂emissions and heat stress. Heat Stress increases metabolic rates inmammals. A GreenFeed system can be used to measure the metabolicemissions of CO₂ under varied atmospheric conditions. It can also beused to evaluate the differences in heat sensitivity among individuals.In addition, CH₄ production rates are likely to be affected if heatstress leads to changes in behavior that are reflected in diet oractivity level.

As yet another example of a use for a GreenFeed system, a system may beused to study CH₄ and CO₂ emissions and heat detection. DMI typicallydecreases during the onset of an animal's estrus cycle. In addition,animal activity has been documented to significantly increase.Therefore, it is likely that changes in CH₄ and CO₂ emission rates forspecific animal can be an additional indicator that an animal is inestrus.

In another case, a GreenFeed system may be used to study CH₄ emissionsand pasture quality. Pasture quality changes as a function of grazingintensity and climatic variables. As forage quality decreases, thefraction of gross energy intake lost as CH₄ also increases. Therefore, aGreenFeed system may be configured to monitor for or track significantchanges in CH₄ and CO₂ that will effectively act as indicators of whenoptimal grazing intensity is achieved and/or when there is a need for ormay be a benefit of providing one or more additional nutrientsupplementation to a herd (e.g., alert an operator when too many animalsare on a pasture, when herds should moved to rotate use of pastures,when supplements alone may overcome a deficient pasture, and so on).

As will be appreciated, a GreenFeed system may be used by nearly anymanager of a herd of ruminant animals. The inventors have installedGreenFeed in a robotic milking machine, a tie-stall dairy, and in apasture environment. It will be easy to adapt the same feeder to afeedlot or other dairy environment. In crowded conditions, a GreenFeedsystem may benefit from normal animal control measures to limit accessto the feeder to one animal at a time for each sampling period (e.g., 5minutes or more per sampling in some cases). In this regard, though,access can be easily automated using typical animal control measures.

The number of cows per GreenFeed feeder or sampling station will dependon the application and the situation. It will be useful for users toestimate the number of feeders required for their specific goals. TheGreenFeed unit can be used on multiple animals and in continuous feedsituations. Where animals have close access to the unit/feeder most ofthe time, the feeder will be able to service many animals such as cows(perhaps up to 60). In pasture situations, where the animals such ascows move and do not spend significant time at one specific location, itmight be preferred to use more feeders (or fewer animals perfeeder/sampling station).

In some embodiments, each animal utilizes a GreenFeed station for atleast five minutes total per session. That schedule providesmeasurements for 6 or 7 eructation events. Eructation rates can vary,but the collected test data indicates that they normally occur everyforty seconds for most animals. Therefore, a GreenFeed system user canestimate how much time the animals/cows are to spend at a GreenFeedlocation and how many GreenFeed units will be used to meet specificproject goals. The GreenFeed systems generally have been designed sothat each animal can be fed a specific amount of food supplement in aspecific time period. In addition, with multiple feeders, specificanimals could be allowed to eat at one feeder and others at a differentfeeder with different food type. Therefore, the animals can be treateddifferently, and the system is very flexible for adapting to a specificresearch program.

At this point in the description, it may be useful to describe a typicalsampling sequence for a specific animal during use of a GreenFeedsystem. This description describes an exemplary useful design and alsoincludes potential variations and alternatives to this exemplary (butnot limiting) design. First, an animal, preferably a ruminant animalsuch as a cow, approaches a GreenFeed feeding station. The GreenFeedunit in some preferred embodiments is configured to pivot into the wind(e.g., with the opening to the hood/manger is facing away from the windand airflow or with the solid body of the hood/manger facing theoncoming wind) so that the animal is facing into the wind with its headinserted into the GreenFeed unit or feeding station. With this windvane-type rotation of the unit, the wind flow is directed over andaround the GreenFeed unit in a way that minimizes turbulence and mixingwithin the hood/manger where gas sampling occurs.

The shape of the GreenFeed feeding station or hood/manger is optimizedso that when occupied by an animal, the airflow into the opening of thehood/manger is smooth and turbulent mixing where the animal's nostrilsare located is minimized (or at least reduced to acceptable levels).Alternatively, the GreenFeed feeding station or unit could be located ina barn or other shelter or in an automated milking machine or in acommunal water dispensing system so that the effect of variable windcurrents and wind directions is minimized. As another alternative, themixing near the head of the animal could be minimized through theplacement of curtains made of a flexible material such as rubber flapsor translucent plastic wind-doors (e.g., the animal inserts their headthrough movable rubber flaps that may be supported at the top of theopening or at the sides of the opening). As a further alternative,mixing could be restricted with an air curtain, where air is directedthrough a narrow slit across the open end of the GreenFeed unit torestrict mixing. Alternatively, the plenum that leads into the samplepipe/sample manifold could be replaced by a “fumehood” type coverthrough which air and the animal's metabolic gases are pulled.

In other words in some embodiments, the GreenFeed stations or units aredesigned to reproductively minimize mixing and/or to reliably quantifymixing. Without such a design, the stations are most useful for themeasurement and monitoring of ratios of metabolic gases, such as CH₄ toCO₂ ratios and of changes in the ratios of these and other similargases. However, many embodiments where mixing is controlled and/orquantified are useful for the measurement of the mass fluxes of thesegases. Measurement of the mass fluxes of specific metabolic gases isuseful in determining ruminant efficiency and the effectiveness of CH₄reduction strategies.

As a second step of the sampling sequence, the animal preferably isequipped with a passive RFID ear tag, an RFID-tagged collar, or anactive-RFID ear tag or collar to allow each animal to be identified bythe GreenFeed system. Alternatively, the animal may not have any tag orcollar, but it can be identified from a camera located in the vicinityof the GreenFeed station, but, in some cases, each animal is notidentified except as a member of a local population of such animals.With regard to a third “step” in the sampling sequence, the GreenFeedsystem contains devices/components for recording the presence of theanimal. For example, each GreenFeed unit may contain an RFID reader thatcan decode the animal's tag and identify a specific individual to thedata logger/data analysis station. GreenFeed units also utilize audioand visual cues as an aid to training and to notify animals in thevicinity that they will receive a reward if they visit the unit.

As a fourth or next step in the sampling sequence, based on informationcollected about the individual animal through independent or throughcoupled data gathering systems (such as scales to determine animalweight and/or measurements of animal milk production), the GreenFeedsystem with its analysis software and/or the GreenFeed operatorsmanually determine an optimal allocation of mineral supplement orsupplemental feed to be delivered to the animal over a specifiedtime-period. Feed is preferably dispensed at a rate that is no fasterthan the animal's rate of consumption in order to minimize material leftover for the next animal and to discourage “bullying” behavior where adominant animal attempts to force the animal utilizing the GreenFeedsystem out. In addition, a system of gates and chutes can be implementedto minimize this crowding behavior if necessary. Preferably, if theanimal leaves before his allocation is completely consumed, thedispensing system stops. If the animal approaches at a later time,another portion of the daily ration can be dispensed. In this way, eachanimal can be encouraged to visit the GreenFeed unit several times perday if the operator desires. Further individual dispensing times can beset so that specific animals are dispensed at specific times of the day.

As a fifth or next step in the sampling sequence for one embodiment, theanimal is equipped with an active RFID tag that includes a sensor thatis resident in the animal's ear canal. When the animal approaches theGreenFeed unit, its identity and its body temperature are read andrecorded in a GreenFeed computer/data logger located in proximity to theGreenFeed unit.

As a sixth or next step in the sampling sequence, when the animal isnear the GreenFeed unit, an air sampling pipe/air sampling manifold isactivated. The fan turns on and pulls a flow of approximately 100 cubicfeet per minute through the GreenFeed air sampling system. In theGreenFeed field unit, the air is first pulled through a plenum includinga perforated plate that is immediately adjacent to the animal's nostrilswhile its head is in a feeding position. The plenum is designed tominimize turbulent mixing of the animal's breath and eructations. Inthis way, air that is pulled from around the animal's head, over itsnostrils and mouth area entrains the animal's metabolic gas emissionsinto air captured and routed through the air sampling manifold/airsampling pipe. The GreenFeed unit or manger/hood is designed to capturethe animal's breath and eructations quickly to minimize mixing withambient air outside of the unit.

In a seventh or next step, the flow through the air sampling pipe and/orair sampling manifold passes through the plenum and then through an airfilter designed to remove dust and large particulates that could affectthe performance of sensors. In an eighth or next step of the samplingsequence, the air passes through structures designed to uniformly mixthe air across the cross section of the air sample manifold/air samplepipe (e.g., across/through the flow distributer 1428 of samplingassembly 1420 in FIG. 14). In one preferred embodiment, mixingstructures include “tabs” attached to the sides of the air sampling pipe1420 in FIG. 14. Other mixing structures can include restrictors andbaffles and/or plastic tubes about 0.25 centimeters (cm) in diameter and15 cm in length that are bundled together and packed into the air samplepipe in the flow path to create mixing. These tubes serve to helpmaintain flow in the sample pipe/sample manifold (e.g., sample manifold1424 of assembly 1420 in FIG. 14).

As a ninth or next step in the sampling sequence, air flowing throughthe air sample pipe/air sample manifold then flows over sensorsconfigured to measure or sense data relative to moisture, temperature,pressure and velocity. Not all of these measurements are required at alltimes. The important thing is that the air flow through the samplepipe/sample manifold is very well characterized and can be accuratelymonitored or inferred.

As a tenth or next step in the sampling sequence, when the animalinserts its head into the Greenfeed unit, a proximity sensor, e.g., aninfrared or ultrasonic sensor, detects the position of the animal's headwith respect to the sample plenum/sample inlet. The time and positionare then recorded such as by the data logger. In addition, the GreenFeedunit can include one or more cameras that will record the presence of ananimal and which can also be used to identify specific individuals iftags are not available or used.

As an eleventh step, the RFID and proximity information is then used bythe data loggers and/or the data analysis station to make decisionsabout dispensing feed and recording data from the analyticalinstruments. In practice, the analytical sensors normally require asignificant warm-up time. Therefore, those sensors are operatedcontinuously. Depending on the availability of power, the fan (or airpump) that pushes or preferably pulls air through the sample pipe/samplemanifold can be left in operation continuously or it can be switched onwhen the animal is detected to be present.

As a twelfth step in the sampling process, the animal has approached theGreenFeed unit, the animal has been identified and its supplementalration and feeding schedule has been determined. The unit with itsautomated feed hopper operates to dispense a portion of the daily rationat a rate that keeps the animal's head in the unit but also that is slowenough so that the animal occupies the unit for a length of timesufficient to monitor several eructation cycles.

As a thirteenth or next step, the tracer can be released during themeasurement period in several different ways. If a tracer-specificsensor is available, it can be turned on when the animal approaches theGreenFeed system and turned off when the animal leaves. During the timethat GreenFeed unit is occupied by an animal, it can be switched from aquantitative or, at the very least, a carefully controlled rate ofrelease near the animal's nostrils to an identical release inside theair sampling pipe/air sampling manifold. The ratio of the two valuesdetermines the capture rate of the sample.

As an alternative or a fourteenth step, if the analytical systemresponds to the tracer gas, as is the case for most NDIR instrumentsdesigned to measure CH₄ but which also respond to propane, for example,then the tracer release can be modulated so that its signal can bedifferentiated from that of the CH₄ emitted by the animal. Preferably,several eructations can be measured, the tracer gas can be released,offsetting the baseline, over several more eructations, and finally thetracer release can be switched to flow inside the air sample pipe/airsample manifold. In another example, when the eructation interval for aspecific animal is determined, a pulse of trace gas can be released tocreate a peak that occurs between eructation events and alternatedbetween external and internal releases.

As an alternative or as a fifteenth step in the sampling sequence, adifferential absorbent, such as “Carbo Sieve s3” distributed bySulpelco, can be packed into a short filter tube. When the tube isplaced in line with the CH₄ analyzer, the tracer gas (propane or butane)is differentially scrubbed so the signal only includes CH₄. When thefilter is switched offline, then the analyzer will detect both CH₄ andthe propane tracer. The ethyl mercaptan oderant added to propane andbutane gas can also leaks be differentially scrubbed, for example withiron oxide, if it is suspected that it negatively impacts the animalsbeing sampled.

As yet another alternative or as a sixteenth step, the tracer can bereleased for selected animals during selected atmospheric mixingconditions. In this way, the capture rate can be determinedquantitatively under specific, measured conditions. These capture ratescan then be used to develop a simple regression model or numericalrelationship that links specific GreenFeed measurements (for examplewind speed and wind direction) to measured mixing. This relationship canthen be used to predict the capture rate for each animal for eachsampling period.

Alternatively or as an seventeenth step in the sampling sequence,changes in moisture measured in the sample pipe compared to ambientmeasurements are used to correct fluxes for the capture rate changesthat occur during a sampling period. For example, the relative humiditymeasurement may rises from 70% (ambient air) to 90% when the animalinserts its head into the GreenFeed unit. However, the proximity sensorindicates that the head remained in position, yet the relative humidityin the sample pipe/sample manifold dropped to 80% during the sampleperiod, corresponding with an increase in wind speed. The data analysissystem may determine that mixing increased by the ratio determined bythe flow rate of ambient air and the change in the total mass flow ofmetabolic gases from the animal into the feeding station or samplingunit.

As a next or eighteenth step, measurements of CH₄, CO₂, and othermetabolic gases are made and recorded such as at one-second intervals.Preferably, the recorded data is accessible by remote computer systemsand/or smart phone systems. Alternatively, data is stored on a localdata logger for periodic collection, e.g., by technicians remotelypolling the logger or physically visiting the unit to retrieve therecorded data.

The GreenFeed system can be operated in an automated mode, whereconditional decisions are programmed through a remote computer, or smartphone. Alternatively, the GreenFeed system can be operated in manualmode through a cell phone/Internet link. The animal consumes its rationfor the specified time period. It then leaves and the next animal entersand the cycle is repeated. The total time each animal occupies theGreenFeed unit typically does not exceed about eight minutes.

One question that may arise with use of a GreenFeed system is howshort-term CH₄ flux measurements are related to daily fluxes and what isthe uncertainty associated with making periodic measurements. Theanswers to these questions generally depend on the animal managementsystem. The diurnal cycle of CH₄ and CO₂ are affected by the frequencyof feeding in a confined animal operation or the specific grazing regimein a pasture situation. For confined systems such as a modern dairy,animals are fed continuously, and it is likely that diurnal variabilityis less than on pasture. In a pasture, grazing is impacted by foragequantity and quality and the proximity of water. In any given system, itis possible to use the GreenFeed data to estimate total daily emissionsrates for many animals in an unobtrusive, cost effective way.Generalization of the data involves the utilization of appropriateextrapolation methodologies. This can include numerical modelscalibrated to field data and/or simple parameterizations based on thefrequency and timing of GreenFeed periods for each animal.

In pasture-grazing systems, the animals may exhibit a diurnal cycle ofbehavior and tend to visit the feeder at specific times. For example, ithas been found that cows generally visit a GreenFeed pasture feeder inthe morning and evening because it is typically placed near water. It istherefore important to relate a morning and evening measurements to theunderstood diurnal fluctuations in CH₄ emissions observed in pasturedanimals. By placing the GreenFeed units in strategic locations in thepasture, animals can be enticed to visit the feeder at varied times overa day. Regardless of the particular implementation of a system, theGreenFeed systems are very useful for determining relative emissionrates among animals in any system and to detect changes in an individualthat occur over time. In a feedlot or dairy, where feed times and visitscan be more random, the randomness of the sampling increases the abilityto measure the animal's variable emissions over time.

Daily emission can be estimated from one seven-minute sampling periodfor an animal such as a cow. This example assumes a constant CH₄emission rate over the day. However, numerical models could easily beapplied to the spot measurement to better estimate a daily value. Thearea under a curve at the peaks associated with each eructation may beused to determine average mass of methane per eructation and the numberof eructations per day may be used to estimate methane emissions forthis animal over a day. For example, in one test, a seven-minutesampling period was used when a cow had its head in a hood or samplingunit. Seven eructations occurred with an average length of about 50seconds, and the average mass per eructation was determined to be 0.10grams. If this is then extended over an entire day, it may be estimatedthat the cow would have 1700 to 1800 eructations in a day (e.g., about1769 eructations). This would result in the cow having methane emissionsof 176 grams per day assuming the monitored rate of average emissionscontinues throughout the day.

Some embodiments of the feed or sampling station (such as a tie-stallunit for use in dairy operations or the like) may include an auxiliarysample collection system. The auxiliary sample collection system orassembly allows a user to collect a sample in a container or on a filterto take to an analytical laboratory for analysis of constituents thatcannot be measured by continuous instruments (such as those installed inthe GreenFeed units). A typically auxiliary sample collection assemblyincludes plumbing that lets the user manually or automatically collecteither a quantitative sample at the exit of the sample tube or aqualitative sample at the front end prior to mixing and potentialscrubbing by the filter and walls (which may be important for aldehydesand alcohols and other sticky constituents).

The GreenFeed system's data analysis software or the local softwareprovided as part of the controller for the auxiliary sample collectionassembly includes programming so that the samples can be collectedconditionally. To this end, the controller (with its own software or inresponse to a control signal from a remote controller/data analysissystem/station) determines when an eructation is detected and, inresponse to such detection, turns on a sample pump of the auxiliarysample collection assembly. Conversely, the controller and its softwaremay be configured to perform sampling only when there are noeructations. Sampling can also be conditional on other data and signalsas well. For example, the controller may initiate sampling when theproximity sensor detects the presence of an animal's muzzle in theoptimal position or when the animal's respiration is detected within ahood or GreenFeed unit. In some cases, the assembly's controllerfunctions to affect sampling of each breath but avoids eructations.

As discussed above, field or pasture-based units may have batteries thatare recharged through the use of one or more solar panels whiledairy/stall-based units may be hardwired for power. Numerous other addedcomponents or features may be provided with each GreenFeed unit toprovide an overall more effective GreenFeed system. For example, aGreenFeed unit may be equipped with sound and light assemblies/devicesoperated by a local or remote controller to selectively providetones/sounds audible and visible, respectively, by nearby animals. Theseaudible and visible signals can be used in many different combinationsand ways to condition the animals to engage in specifically-desiredbehavior.

For example, when an animal approaches and its ear tag is read, if it iseligible to get a “treat” a light will turn on and a tone may sound.When the animal inserts its head completely into the GreenFeed and isdetected by the proximity sensor, the feed can be dispensed after asmall delay. Eventually, the delay between lighting and/or other signalscan be increased before a treat is dispensed. In this way, the animalcan be effectively trained to place its muzzle in the optimum positionlong enough for us to collect data for several eructations yet minimizethe amount of “reward” dispensed. This has several advantages. Itminimizes changes in the animal's diet, it trains the animal to keep itshead in the correct position (greatly improving data quality), and itminimizes requirements to service the unit. In other words, the units donot have to be services as often such as to add feed or clean airfilters.

Alternatively, the GreenFeed unit may be configured to provide a tone ora different light signal or both when the required data has beensuccessfully collected to cause or encourage the animal to leave. Inthis case, the signal may even be associated with a small static charge(like that from a cattle prod) to encourage the animal to move on. Thecharge could possibly be administered through the feeder dish, but thismay not be desirable since the animal might then avoid the unit alltogether. In some cases, the electric charge is administered through awire hanging down from above the animal's back. Such a system forencouraging an animal to leave a location is used in robotic milkingmachines and works well. Eventually, a change in the light and/or a tonewill be enough to encourage the animal to exit to avoid the shock orother negative feedback (e.g., a release of an oderant to encourage theanimal to exit). For example, some GreenFeed units may use propane as atracer to determine the “capture ratio” in GreenFeed, and the inventorshave noted that some animals do not like the odor of the tri-methylsulfide that is commonly added to propane as an oderant. In some units,a scrubber is used to remove the oderant prior to release of propanewhen an animal is present such that it would be easy to equip thepropane cylinder with a three-way valve to release propane with theoderant as a signal that it is time for the individual to leave theGreenFeed unit. Other odorants could be used as well.

As will be appreciated, there are a lot of potential combinations ofstimuli and behaviors that may be used with a GreenFeed unit toencourage or discourage particular actions by animals. Also, a GreenFeedsystem may include one or more stand-alone training units that havethese signaling capabilities and detects the animal's presence anddispenses a “treat.” The training unit, though, would not contain gassensors or any other sensor. It may be configured to only have a simplemotion detector and be controlled such that when an animal approaches,it drops feed. The training unit may also contain an RFID reader so thatspecific animals can be identified and lured in on a schedule.

In one implementation of the techniques described herein, a unit wasbuilt for a tie-stall research dairy. In order to fit below the tie-barof a typical diary, the unit was mounted to a very low three-wheeledcart. The unit was AC-powered but had a power-conditioning system andbattery backup so that it can operate for a period of time without ACpower. In addition, the unit included a set of sampling valves and apumping system to collect gas samples for exploratory analyticalmeasurements. The sampling system was very flexible in that it wasadapted to be programmed to collect air samples at specified timeintervals and it could be set to sample individual eructations.

A number of design improvements or aspects may be included in a typicalstandalone feeder or GreenFeed unit such as the feeder 910 of FIG. 9 orfeeder/manger/hood 1310 of FIG. 13 or in a typical tie-stall dairy unit.These design aspects may be incorporated to make the units easier to useand to move. For example, the top of the food-bin may be kept relativelylow in height so that it is easier to fill (e.g., a fill opening at 4 to6 feet or the like), and the food bin may include a 50 lb (or othersized) food extension to increase the overall storage/dispensingcapacity (e.g., up to 100 lbs or more).

The food drop tube in the hood/manger may be located out of the way ofthe cow's nose. Each hood/manger of a GreenFeed unit may include a foodtray or dish and an air intake manifold is positioned adjacent or nearbythe food tray/dish. In some embodiments, the intake manifold is madefrom stainless steel, and it surrounds the animal's muzzle (e.g., with awall (which may have three sections or be arcuate) extending at leastabout the sides and front of the animal's muzzle) to further increasethe GreenFeed system's breath capture rate uniformity. The unit can beused with or without wing extensions on the feeder that help restrictmixing. Normally, it may be useful to train the animals (such as cows)without the extensions, then add them after a couple days if needed toreduce mixing in the hood/manger. To date, under current field operatingconditions, the wings have not been required to obtain useful samplingresults. A head position sensor and/or cameras (such as a web camera)may be in-laid or in recessed locations within the feeder/unit so thatthe animals do not lick or damage the devices.

FIG. 17 illustrates a feeding station or GreenFeed unit 1700 showing onearrangement of the interior portion of a manger/hood that is useful forsampling animal's breath.

As shown, the feeding station 1700 includes a hood/manger 1710 that mayhave a hollow body that is generally wedge shaped. The hood 1710includes an opening on one side for receiving an animal's head and theinterior space of the hood 1710 is defined by the inner surfaces 1714 ofthe hood wall 1710. On a bottom surface or wall 1716 of the hood 1710, afood tray 1720 is positioned and is configured with a recessed surfacefor receiving food/supplements that may be dispensed from the food binoutlet 1740 (which is typically positioned in a forward location in thehood 1710 so that an animal's nose is not blocking the outlet or so thatfeed is not dispensed on the animal).

The unit 1700 further includes a sampling intake plenum 1730 that isconfigured to wrap about the sides and front of an animal's head/muzzlewhen it is feeding at the tray 1720. To this end, the plenum 1730includes three inlet surfaces/walls 1732, 1734, 1736 that include anumber of inlets through which air/gas for sampling may be drawn out ofthe hood 1710. The inlet surfaces 1732, 1734, 1736 extend up from thetray 1720 and may be angled inward some amount to better capture theanimal's breath/eructations (such as at angles of 15 to 45 degrees orthe like). The side surfaces 1732, 1736 may extend toward the opening1712 at an angle (such as at 30 to 45 degrees) and a distance to providea desired amount of “wrap” about the animal's muzzle (such as 3 to 10inches extension toward opening 1712 or the like depending upon theanimal's size).

The unit 1700 also includes a recessed inlet or surface 1750 in which asensor may be provided to sense the presence of an animal's head/nose.This sensor is shown to be positioned directly above the food tray 1720but may also be positioned elsewhere in the hood 1710 such on a side ofthe inner wall 1714. Further, the unit 1700 includes a tracer gas outlet1760 that may include a tube extending to a location proximate to thefront sampling plenum wall/surface 1734 or elsewhere in the hood 1710.

The design of the gas collection pipe may also be varied to practice theinvention. In some cases, the collection pipe is configured tofacilitate uniform horizontal mixing while avoiding stretching thesample along the tube. In addition, the collection pipe or tubing may beconfigured to create uniform velocity profiles of sampled air/gas sothat flow-rates and fluxes have a significantly lower uncertainty. Thecollection pipe or assembly may also be configured to control (e.g.,decrease) the CH₄ and CO₂ lag times. The lag time is the amount of timebetween the release of a sample and when it is actually measured by thesensors. In some early embodiments, the lag time was about 17 secondsbut in later configurations the lag time is only about 6 seconds.

In practice, a GreenFeed unit or station is configured to includesensors for methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide, watervapor, temperature, air velocity, head position, RFID sensors for eartags, and more. To train and control animal behavior, each unittypically includes signal lights and a tone-generating sound system.These can be used through various programming options to condition theanimals to be aware that if they approach the unit at the specified time(day or night) a treat will be dispensed.

As can be seen from the above description, a GreenFeed system may beused to quantitatively and unobtrusively monitor methane (CH₄), carbondioxide (CO₂), and other selected trace gas mass fluxes from cattle thatare released from the mouth during eructation and respiration. CH₄ is apowerful greenhouse gas that is produced by anaerobic digestion in therumen, and CH₄ production represents an energy loss of four to tenpercent of a cow's gross energy intake. Rumen CH₄ and CO₂ fluxes arealso sensitive to rumen function, diet, behavior, animal health, andgenetics. In addition, respiratory CO₂ fluxes can be used to estimateenergy balances for individual cattle. The GreenFeed system allows theuser to make periodic measurements of CH₄ and CO₂ fluxes for manyindividuals several times each day. The periodic daily data, whenaggregated over longer time periods, allows the user to track andcompare emissions for large groups of individual animals. The individualanimal data can also be aggregated as totals for the herd.

Use of GreenFeed systems, allows operators to achieve feed efficiencyimprovements that alone could amount to up to $2 per animal per day. Ifan operator only realized a one percent improvement, the operator couldsave $0.20 per animal. Even with this pessimistic assumption, a1000-animal dairy would potentially save $200 per day in feed costs-morethan $70,000 per year. Genetic improvement could be achieved withelection of lower feed intake and/or high productivity cows and calvesidentified by use of the GreenFeed system. It has been estimated thatthis could be improved by at least a factor of two. The international“Cow of the Future” goal is a 20 percent improvement by 2020. Use of aGreenFeed system assists with feed and grazing management by providingmeasurement of feed efficiency and detection of suboptimal feed mixes.This could result in improved milk production in dairy cattle and fasterweight gain in beef cattle. Prior to use of GreenFeed, there was no easyway to determine whether the feed mix purchased is the same quality asthat delivered.

Monitoring with a GreenFeed system can also be used to provide improvedestrus (heat) detection and pregnancy detection. Roughly 10 percent ofall bred dairy cows do not get pregnant (e.g., even when they are open).It takes about two years to grow a replacement heifer, but open cows areoften wasted or sent to slaughter. Replacement cows represent an expenseof thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars to most dairies.GreenFeed systems provide almost continuous and instantaneous feedbackon animal condition and are very sensitive to changes in individualanimals. Therefore, GreenFeed systems could potentially improve bothheat detection and animal health and significantly improve pregnancyrates. Research may be used to prove this.

Customized supplementation of each individual animal is provided withmany implementations of a GreenFeed system. Supplements are expensive.In a typical free-stall dairy where total mixed rations are distributed,animals often sort and select their feed and may not consume a balanceddiet. Non-optimal feeding wastes expensive feed components including thesupplements. GreenFeed can monitor animal respiration and thendistribute the most expensive feed components and supply supplements tooptimize the performance of each animal.

For example, a dairy typically has animals in all stages of lactation.Optimal nutrition varies daily as each animal progresses from pregnancyto calving to early, middle, and late stages to the dry-off period. Thiswhole process can be monitored and optimized with GreenFeed technologyas described herein. As an anecdotal example or test use in one dairyoperation where about 40 animals were monitored several times daily witha GreenFeed unit, a long-term herd-wide trend of decreasing methane withtime was identified. This was puzzling since the feed supply was notdecreasing. TMDR (total mixed daily rations) were being continuallyadjusted but not radically changed. After about eight weeks of datadocumenting this trend, a worker noted a cow drinking urine and deducedthat the salt intake of the herd was insufficient. Workers, therefore,placed a couple of salt-blocks in an area accessible to the animals. Thenext morning several animals were down. Before the day's end eight werelost. After extensive forensic testing, the manager believes that thelong-term chronic salt deficiency resulted in dominant animals consumingtoo much of the salt too quickly. This over-consumption of salt causednerve damage and acute toxicity. The decreasing trend of methaneproduction had signaled a dietary deficiency that if properly diagnosedand detected earlier would have mitigated or eliminated the resultingacute animal poisoning. Particularly, the salt supplement could havebeen instead delivered through the monitoring GreenFeed system, and eachanimal could have been supplied the optimal amount to avoid acutetoxicity occurring with use of open supply or salt blocks. It should benoted that presently the cost of only a couple of animals exceeds thecost of a GreenFeed unit.

GreenFeed Systems can also be used to provide genetic improvement. Thereis at least a factor of two difference between animal weight gain withidentical feed intakes. The GreenFeed system can be used to monitor feedintake and efficiency. Since carbon dioxide is measured as well asmethane, the GreenFeed system can be programmed to tell how much energyis used in maintenance and respiration as well as how efficiently therumen is functioning. The GreenFeed system can also identify peak weightgain. As animals grow, they reach a point where growth tapers off andmaintenance costs increase. The GreenFeed system can be programmed andoperated to monitor intake as well as respiration and develop models toindicate when the ideal market weight of each animal is reached.

GreenFeed systems may be used to achieve more optimal range management.GreenFeed results or output can help to inform range managers when it istime to rotate to new pastures. Degradation and erosion of rangelandscosts regions billions of dollars over time as reservoirs fill withsediment and ecosystems become vulnerable to invasive species. AGreenFeed system can monitor changes in feed intake and efficiency. Asanimals are released into a new pasture, they first consume the mostdesirable forage. As grazing continues over time, they tend to grazeless desirable, lower quality, and less digestible material. Thisresults in GreenFeed measurements or output reports that reflectincreased methane production per unit of carbon dioxide (respiration).Changes in the ratios of carbon dioxide to methane as well as changes inthe fluxes of these gases when aggregated over many individual animalscan be used to indicate optimal forage removal and signal time forrotation of animals to new pasture.

Additionally, a GreenFeed system may be adapted to be used to feed oridentify/treat diseases in other animals in addition to ruminants suchas feeding these animals specific supplements at specific intervals. Forexample, this would be especially valuable for horses. Often, highlevels of supplements are fed and, if one horse consumes too much, itcan be fatal. A GreenFeed system can be set up so a person could observehis horse over a smart phone or other Internet connection and feed theanimal using their smart phone or computer to control the feeder.

In addition to monitoring methane and other gaseous emissions, theinventors recognize that with modifications (or even withoutmodifications) a GreenFeed system may be operated to detect disease (orchanges in health) in particular or individual animals such asparticular member of a herd or a flock. Then, the GreenFeed system maybe operated to report out diagnosis of disease on an animal-by-animalbasis (e.g., a report, such as with an e-mail alert or the like, of aparticular disease and any treatments provided along with an animal ID).In some cases, the GreenFeed system may be operated to treat the diseasewith dosing of medicines such as nasal doses or to provide vaccinationsfor the sick animal and/or for other members of this herd. Further,based on the monitored health of the animal (as discussed in detailabove and further below), the timing of such treatments and/orvaccinations may be suited to the individual animal's health to suit theparticular treatment or preventative medicine. Such active monitoringand/or treatment of disease may have immense value in the farmingindustry.

For example, in the dairy industry, GreenFeed systems facilitate custommonitoring of the health of individual animals (e.g., early diseasedetection and remediation), which can easily provide a $100 billiondollar savings across the dairy industry. In an exemplary implementation(test run/case), a GreenFeed system was operated to detect a dramaticdecrease in methane in one dairy cow 36 hours before milk conductivitymeasurements indicated that it had mastitis. At the minimum, the milkfrom the animal had to be discarded during treatment, which may beestimated as about 1000 pounds of milk per animal for a 10 day treatmentof mastitis. At worst, a dairy cow with mastitis has to be culled fromthe herd, and early diagnosis can reduce the amount of milk lost and, insome cases, avoid loss of an animal.

Lameness is another chronic dairy illness that is difficult to detectand expensive to treat. By the time lameness is reflected in reducedmilk production, recovery time could be quite extended. With GreenFeedmonitoring of a diary cow, changes in diet and activity can be detectedwithin hours and identified or flagged as indicating an animal has ormay have lameness. Affected animals can be automatically identified inan email alert or other reporting mechanism and physically marked (suchas discussed above with dye/paint or the like).

With reference to FIG. 18, the following sequence describes exemplaryoperation 1800 of a GreenFeed system, such as system 100, modified todiagnosis and treat diseases in animals. This may be achieved withadditional processing of the GreenFeed data by a diagnostics moduleprovided in a data analyzing station (e.g., software run by a processorfor analyzing gather data). A GreenFeed system, such as system 100, mayinclude: one or several dispensers (such as dispenser 122) for specificfeed supplements (such as liquid or granular supplements 126); amonitoring system for metabolic gas emissions from animals (such as NDIRCH₄ and CO₂ analyzer 116 and data logger 118 of system 100); an RFIDreader (such as reader 114) to read data from each animal's ear tag (asshown at 208 in FIG. 2); sensors built into a ground-mounted weightscale to record the approaching animal's weight (not shown in FIGS. 1-3but may be provided in system 100); solar panels to supply power whenmain power is not available (not shown in FIGS. 1-3 but also may beincluded in system 100); and batteries that are recharged by the solarpanels residing in a pasture (again, these are not shown in FIGS. 1-3but are included in some systems 100 to practice embodiments of theinvention).

The process 1800 is a modification of method 400 such that similarsteps/processes have like numbering in FIG. 18. The process 1800 startsat 405 such as by providing the animal feed stations and nutrientdispensers within a pasture or feeding area for ruminants, and step 405may also include loading processing software/modules in the system toanalyze monitored emissions data and, in response, to operate thenutrient dispenser for a particular animal (such as animal 204) or themonitored/controlled herd. This software may include a diagnosticsmodule, shown as being run on the data analyzing station in FIG. 18, toprocess the data to diagnose particular animals as having (orpotentially having) diseases such as mastitis, lameness, or the like.Further software may be provided for controlling the GreenFeed system todispense a treatment in the present or a next visit of the animal at thehood/manger, to update the animal's data records, to physically mark theanimal, and/or to alert an operator (or report out diagnosis of disease)for further actions.

Periodically, the system (such as system 100) turns on and makesmeasurements of ambient air inside the manger portion of the GreenFeedsystem (such as the hood/manger 112 of feed station 110 shown in FIGS.1-3 where the animal 204 inserts its head). These air samples are thebackground samples, and sampling may be performed by the analyzer 116 orother devices of a system (such as system 100). The system may includesensors to monitor animal head position when under the hood, wind speed,wind direction, air temperature, relative humidity, air flow ratethrough the air sampling pipe, and other sensors. Data from any or allof these sensors may be used to determine mass fluxes of metabolic gasesthrough the system and animal breath capture rates under typicalconditions. The data may also be stored and used to select measurementsaccurate to defined specifications.

When an animal approaches at step 410, the system monitors its ear tagwith a tag or RFID reader at 420 and such reading may awaken the feedingsystem. A computer program run by a processor(s) may be provided in theGreenFeed system that monitors the time of day and determines whether ornot to dispense a specific feed material based on the time of day and/orthe particular animal such as based on the ear tag determination. Insome cases a placebo or bait feed, one that attracts the animal but hasno significant metabolic effect, can be dispensed. The placebo documentsthe baseline for the performance of the specific animal. As shown, thesystem may determine at 430 that the animal linked in a database withthe read ear tag has received their daily ration, and, if so, the method1800 continues at 436 with the system operating in a standby mode foradditional approaching animals, e.g., unfed animals to dispenseappropriate nutrients and diagnose and/or treat for diseases.

After the RFID tag is read at 420, the system (or its monitoringsoftware) may determine at 440 that the animal associated with the readear tag has not received its daily ration of the methane controlling orother nutrients. In some cases or implementations of process 400, thetag number of the ear tag (e.g., a 15-digit number or the like) may berecorded in the data logger as shown at 450. At 1842, based on a lookupin a database for the particular animal, the system (or its monitoringsoftware) may determine that the animal associated with the read ear taghas been diagnosed by the GreenFeed system with a disease or conditionthat is to be treated with the GreenFeed system. For example, the animalmay have previously been determined to have mastitis or to havelameness.

At 1844, based on a lookup in a database for the particular animal andthe determination of whether or not the animal has a treatable disease,the automated nutrient dispenser may be operated to dispense feed,nutrient supplements, and/or a treatment or dose of medicine to treatthe particular disease/condition. The amount and type of feed,supplements, and/or treatments dispensed may be recorded to the datalogger or other data storage device in the GreenFeed system as shown at450.

At 460, a separate sensor/detector associated with the feed station orthe RFID reader may trigger the gas and/or other monitoringinstrumentation to turn on. The monitors (such as analyzer 116 in system100) can either be mounted within the GreenFeed hood and/or they can belocated remotely, and air samples collected from within the GreenFeedhood and manger can be routed to the analytical instruments. In oneimplementation, measurements are made as shown at steps 470 and 476 ofmethane, carbon dioxide, and water vapor such as with the sensor and/ormeasurement devices shown in FIGS. 1-3. In addition, animal weight,animal milk production, animal core temperature, and other data can berouted to the data logger (such as data logger 118 of system 100) andcomputer system of the illustrated feeding station of FIGS. 1-3.

These data may then be transferred to a computer program or series ofprograms in which numerical models are run such as within the dataanalyzing station 490 to result in or produce decisions about the typesand amounts of specific antibiotics, and/or nutrient supplements todispense at step 444 in the next or current feeding of animal or accessof a feed station (e.g., provide a particular “prescription” or “diet”of supplements and the like to dispense at this time to this particularanimal based, typically, on the methane emissions detected and/or onmetabolic efficiency of the animal). Additionally, these data may beused by a disease diagnostic module at the analyzing station 1890 (orelsewhere in a system) to identify individual animals that have adisease/condition such as mastitis, lameness, or the like and/or may bein the early stages of a disease. The gas concentration over time asmeasured in steps 470 and 476 may be recorded by data logger as shown at450 concurrently with or prior to transfer to the nutrient supplementselection program module or programs, disease diagnostics module orprograms, or other software/applications running at data analyzingstation 1890. The data may either be stored at the feeder location ortransmitted through wireless or wired communications to the analyzingstation 1890.

Method 1800 continues at 1892 with determining whether a disease wasdiagnosed by the diagnostics module of station 1890. If not, the method1800 continues at 410 with waiting for a next animal to approach thefeeder. If a disease is diagnosed based on processing of the gathereddata, the data analyzing station 1890 operates at 1894 to update theanimal's data/records in the database to indicate the disease that wasdiagnosed/identified as likely present in the animal along with atime/data of the diagnosis. At 1896, the data analyzing station or hostserver acts to alert an operator such as with a wired/wireless message(e.g., a text message, an e-mail, or the like) and/or with a report onthe herd in a daily report (or other periodic reporting mechanism).

The operator may then take further action such as performing additionaltesting or treating the animal (such as an animal's lameness) morepromptly than done with the GreenFeed system (as it awaits for a nextvisit). If the animal is still present, the animal may be physicallytagged or marked by the GreenFeed system at 1898 (such as with dye/paintejected from the manger or the like) to assist the operator in quicklylocating potentially diseased animals in a herd. The method 1800 thencontinues at 410 with waiting on a next animal to approach the feeder.

Other potential conditions (“diseases,” as this term is used broadlyherein) could are monitored with improved sensors or the like providedin a GreenFeed system along with processing software (e.g., “diseasemonitoring sensors” and “disease diagnostics modules” run by processorssuch as those on the GreenFeed system or host server). For example,“ketosis” causes an increase in acetone in an animal's breath, and manydairy cattle are lost to this disease. Sensors that can detect thegaseous products of ketosis are available and could be easily added tothe suite of sensors already in operation in GreenFeed units.Instruments capable of measuring these and other trace gas componentsinclude flame ionization gas chromatography, non-dispersive infraredanalyzers (NDIR), Fourier-Transform infrared spectrometers, and massspectrometers and diode lasers of specific wavelengths.

In beef (and other) feedlots, a GreenFeed system may be used for earlydisease detection. Seven to ten percent of animals cycled throughfeedlots are lost, and many more perform sub-optimally due to undetectedchronic and subclinical diseases that often go undetected and untreatedat the feedlot. Further, even when detected, diseases are oftendiagnosed late or slowly over time. It has been estimated thatimprovements in disease detection of only a few hours can reduce herdtreatment costs by more than 25 percent for each outbreak of aparticular disease. A GreenFeed system adapted for disease detectioncould operate to identify the diseases much more promptly than presentpractices and also be operated to treat the diagnosed disease. Forexample, a GreenFeed system allows antibiotics to be targetedimmediately and specifically to animals in question. Non-treated animalscould be identified and receive or be assigned an “organic cow” premiumin the market (“antibiotic-free” labels or the like).

With regard to operating a GreenFeed system for disease detection, shortterm changes in the performance of a specific animal can indicate aproblem (that may be detected/diagnosed by the disease diagnosticsmodule of station 1890, for example). That animal can be identified tothe manager through the daily report provided as output of an operatingGreenFeed system or directly marked for further testing (updateddatabase records and/or physical marking as discussed above). Conditionsor “diseases” associated with toxic feed and water may also be detectedthough use of a GreenFeed system. In many rangelands, for example, watercan become toxic due to algal blooms or due to the basic geochemistry ofthe minerals and elements that can influence the water supply. In SouthDakota and elsewhere in the United States and worldwide, some watersupplies can cause toxic levels of hydrogen sulfide to be formed in therumen. A GreenFeed system may be used to detect the associated drop inrumen activity before toxic levels are reached.

The configuration and use of GreenFeed systems foridentification/diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases represents anew or additional application for the GreenFeed system. Short termchanges in animal performance as indicated by GreenFeed trace gas fluxdata and/or GreenFeed CO₂/CH₄ ratios can be used as the basis forautomated marking and/or for automatic flagging and reporting tomanagers of an animal with a disease/condition that should be treated orotherwise addressed in a herd. In addition, a GreenFeed system can beused to generate additional data for every animal or alternatively forevery animal flagged for further examination through automated testing.

For example, a GreenFeed system can be designed for use in providingautomated diagnoses of specific cardiopulmonary diseases in ruminants aswell as in other animals. In this regard, respiratory diseases in pigsincluding Porcine Respiratory Disease Complex (PRDC) and PorcineReproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) cause both directproduction losses and unrecognized loss due to subclinical disease. Theability to use a GreenFeed system for automated diagnosis and,optionally, for automated treatment of lung-related diseases inConcentrated Animal Feed Operations (CAFOs) as well as in rangelandsrepresents a huge technical advancement compared to the current state ofthe art. It has been reported that the cattle industry alone loses morethan one trillion dollars annually to pneumonia-related diseases.GreenFeed can be adapted to provide automated identification of animalswith respiratory problems (“diseases”). Currently, CAFOs typically relyon visual examinations by staff and infrequent veterinarian checks todetect disease outbreaks. Many subclinical cases are missed and,conversely, many healthy animals receive unnecessary treatment at coststhat can exceed $25 per head.

With very little modification of the above-described GreenFeed systems,a GreenFeed system can operate to routinely perform testing to identifysuspect animals. Those animals can be directly marked, reported tomanagers, or, alternatively, a GreenFeed system may be configured todeliver the appropriate treatment to affected individuals.

In one embodiment of a GreenFeed system, carbon monoxide is releasedthrough the external tracer release port near the nostrils of an animalat a time when the sensors indicate that the animal has its head in thecorrect position for optimal dosing. The computer controller can be setto simultaneously shut off the sample pipe fan, thereby greatly reducingflow within the GreenFeed “hood” and at the same time open a solenoidvalve to release a controlled dose of carbon monoxide (CO).Alternatively, the CO could be released from a separate release pointabove the animal's nostrils with the fan continuing to operate. In thiscase, the CO gas would mix with the air being pulled past the animal'snostrils and some would be inhaled. The GreenFeed measurements woulddocument the pulse and decay of the carbon monoxide as subsequent animalrespirations expel residual CO.

Carbon monoxide (CO) has already been described as an endogenousmediator, potential diagnostic, and therapeutic target in criticalillness in humans (Ghosh, S.; Gal J.; and Marczin N. Ann Med. 2010;42(1):1-12.) For example, according to some sources (such ashttp://www.webmd.com/lung/lung-function-tests and the like), CO is usedin tests to determine lung function in human patients. CO is usedbecause its affinity for hemoglobin is about 1000 times higher thanoxygen. CO can, therefore, be released at low doses of 100 PPM or lessthrough the tracer release tube inside the GreenFeed hood for severalseconds up to a few minutes while the animal voluntarily consumes thebait. Subsequently, the CO release can be terminated and the sample pipefan activated. The CO released from the animal's breath duringrespiration is monitored over time to determine the carbon monoxidediffusing capacity (transfer factor), which is one measure of how wellthe lungs are functioning. When lung functioning is below somediagnostic threshold for the particular animal or breed of animal, theanimal may be flagged as potentially having a respiratory disease orcondition in the system database, in next reports to an operator, and/orin an alert transmitted to an operator of the GreenFeed system (ormanager/worker of an animal-raising operation).

Other Pulmonary Function Tests (PFTs) can be performed as well. Forexample, with no modification of the current GreenFeed system other thanreprogramming its operation, propane can be released through the tracertube with the sample pipe fan turned off to provide a dose of lowconcentration propane to the animal. The decay of propane in theanimal's breath can then be monitored to measure the efficiency of lungclearance. Since propane has a relatively low solubility, transfersacross lung tissue are minimized and the function of the alveoli can beisolated. Sulfur hexafluoride is another tracer often used as aninsoluble tracer of lung clearance. Other gases or liquid droplets canbe administered through the external tracer release tube. In some cases,a nebulizer nozzle can be added to the external tracer release tube toproduce droplets. Some agents used in testing lung function anddiagnosing specific diseases include histamines, nitric oxide, and othergases. Other tracers and variants of this testing protocol are taughtthrough disclosure of this invention to others relatively skilled in theart of respiratory testing.

GreenFeed results can also be used to estimate lung volume, therebyperforming simulated spirometry. Spirometry in humans typically utilizesa mask to monitor variables such as lung volume and residual breathvolume. A GreenFeed system can monitor the fluxes of carbon dioxide fromeach breath, and the concentrations of carbon dioxide arephysiologically controlled between narrow limits for all animals.Therefore, the GreenFeed CO₂ measurements and external tracer releasemeasurements can be used, by a diagnostic module (such as thediagnostics module of station 1890 discussed above) running in theGreenFeed system, to indicate the total lung volume of each animal.Furthermore, changes in lung volume for each animal over time can bedetected to provide an indication of the presence of disease.

Inhalation challenge tests can be done to measure the response of ananimal's airways to substances that may be causing asthma or wheezing.These tests are also called provocation studies. During inhalationtesting, increasing amounts of a substance are inhaled through anebulizer attached to the external tracer release tube to deliver thesubstance in a fine mist (aerosol). Because of the GreenFeed design, nofacemask or mouthpiece is required. In some tests, increasing amounts ofa histamine or methacholine may be inhaled through the nebulizer. TheGreenFeed simulated spirometry readings can evaluate (e.g., again withprocessing by a disease diagnostics module) lung function before,during, and after the animal inhales the substance. Changes areindicative of specific pathology.

Further, exercise stress tests can be done using GreenFeed by monitoringthe effect of exercise on lung function tests. GreenFeed simulatedspirometry readings done after exercise and then again at rest can beused to evaluate animal cardio-pulmonary function. Tests repeated atregular intervals, such as monthly or annually, can indicate changesthat require additional examination. For example some tests may berepeated after an animal is administered a bronchodialator.

Lung function results are measured directly in some tests and arecalculated in others. No single test is likely to determine all lungfunction values, so more than one type of test may be required to reacha definitive diagnosis. It may be possible to automate theadministration of tests for suspect animals or for the entire herd sothat a sequence of testing identifies animals selected to undergofurther testing in a GreenFeed system. For example, the GreenFeed systemmay be programmed to administer a specific treatment drug as the testingprocess filters out possible causes and symptoms. The affected animalswill be marked for treatment or identified by our software in a concisereport to the manager. CO is in use now in medical offices to diagnoselung problems and asthma problems in humans, but, prior to the presentinvention, others had not yet used CO or similar challenge or diagnosticgases as part of a an automated disease diagnostic process for animalssuch as for cattle, dairy cows, birds, and hogs.

A GreenFeed system may also be used to treat and vaccinate animals in anautomated and more effective manner. For example, the GreenFeed tracersystem can be used to deliver nasal vaccines to calves (or otheranimals). Typically, ten percent of calves in a herd are lost torespiratory diseases during weaning. Vaccine injection takes about 21days to confer immunity. Nasal spray vaccines, in contrast, arevirtually immediate. A GreenFeed system may be adapted to use theexternal tracer release tube with a nebulizer attached to vaccinate eachcalf when that calf is determined to be at the optimal age for aparticular vaccine. This represents a significant improvement as thecurrent state of the art requires all the animals have to be rounded upand treated in squeeze chutes, which is labor intensive and causes a lotof stress to calves and cows.

As discussed above with reference to FIG. 14, GreenFeed sensors can alsobe retrofitted to the automatic concentrate feeder within an automaticmilking robot. Similar modifications may be made as shown in FIG. 19 toprovide a concentrate feeder 1900 that provides disease detection andalso vaccination (e.g., nasal vaccination of dairy cows in thisexample). Similar modifications may be made to the other systems shownherein such as to the system 1300 of FIG. 13 for use in more openimplementations or applications such as for use in pastures andrangeland for cattle or other animals (including animals other thanruminants).

FIG. 19 illustrates a concentrate feeder 1900 with a body 1404 forsupporting a concentrates dispenser as well as other components usefulin a GreenFeed system incorporating the feeder 1900. The body 1404 isconfigured for receiving an animal's head and provides a feeding tray ortrough 1406 in a lower portion and a head position sensor 1408 above thetray/trough 1406 for detecting when an animal has inserted its head inthe feeder 1900. At this point, operation of other components useful forgas sampling or other sampling including disease diagnosis andvaccinations/treatment is triggered. A sheet or pair of air flow blocksor barriers 1410 may be provided on one or both sides of thehead-receiving trough 1406 to reduce air flow rates and mixing tofacilitate collection of the animal's breath while feeding at thetrough/tray 1406. Note, the feeder 1900 may also be used as astand-alone unit without the robot, and the GreenFeed sensors can alsobe incorporated into this device.

As shown, a milking robot is retrofitted with sample intake manifolds inclose proximity to the animal feeding unit 1404. Specifically, thefeeder 1900 includes a gas sampling assembly 1920 including an intakemanifold/plenum 1422 is provided immediately above and adjacent to one,two, three, or more sides of the tray/trough 1406. The gas samplingassembly 1920 further includes a sample collection or air flow pipe 1424with a dust collector/filter 1426 at a location upstream of samplinginstruments. The pipe 1424 may further include a flow distributer 1428to control air/gas flow through the pipe 1424.

A diagnostic gas input mechanism 1930 is provided to selectively (withcontrols that allow switching) provide tracer or challenge gas intotrough/tray area 1406 for collection with an animal's breath and intothe pipe 1424 (as discussed above). For example, the gas input mechanism1930 may be used to selectively CO near an animal's nostrils to allowdiagnosis of an animal with reduced lung function that is indicative(below a threshold level for the particular animal based on its breed,age, and other factors) of a lung-related disease (as discussed above).In other cases (or with another mechanism like mechanism 1930), the gasinput mechanism 1930 may be used to release a predefined amount ofpropane near the animal's nostrils or near the gas intake tray/feed trayto allow the system 1900 via analytics or off-board analysis modules tomeasure the efficiency of lung clearance to identify lung-relatedconditions in the animal. As discussed above, a nebulizer nozzle may beprovided at the end of the tracer release tube of mechanism 1930 toproduce droplets, which may be desirable for some diagnostic gases (oragents) such as histamines, nitric oxide, and the like. Likewise, themechanism 1930 may be used to perform inhalation challenge tests, asdiscussed above, by providing increasing and known amounts of asubstance inhaled through a nebulizer or otherwise discharged as a mistor other desired form for inhalation by an animal in the system 1900.

The assembly 1920 further includes a fan 1440 for drawing air/breathgases into the plenum 1422 and through the pipe 1424 at a desired flowrate. A flow meter 1444 may be included to determine or measure flowrate of the sampled gas on an ongoing or periodic basis. The assembly1920 further includes one or more electronic devices/sensors such as formeasuring methane, carbon dioxide, tracer gases, and other information(as discussed throughout this description). During operation of thefeeder 1900, a representative subsample is routed through the real-timeanalytical instruments 1450. In addition, a subsample of gas could becollected in a container (not shown) for later laboratory analyses.

The analytical instruments 1450 may include one or more diseasediagnostic sensors 1955 provided to allow gases or emissionscorresponding to a particular disease diagnosis. For example, asdiscussed above, the sensor 1955 may be adapted for detecting thegaseous products of ketosis or to detect acetone above a preset limit.The output of the sensor 1955 may be used by a disease diagnosticsmodule to identify when an animal using the feeder 1900 has (orpotentially has) a disease based on their gaseous emissions as they usethe feeder 1900.

Further, the feeder 1900 is adapted for use in selectively providingnasal vaccinations to animals using the feeder 1900. To this end, anasal vaccination discharge mechanism 1935 is provided with a similarconfiguration to the mechanism 1930. For example, the feeder 1900 may,instead of being a milking machine, may be used as a standalone feederfor calves in a dairy operation or on a cattle ranch. The feeder 1900may be controlled to detect when a particular calve or animal hasapproached the feeder 1900 and inserted their head to use feed tray1406. The control system may determine that the animal is a calf thathas not yet received a desired nasal vaccination and is of a desired age(or has another health parameter such as weight) corresponding to propertime for receiving a particular disease vaccination. When this is thecase, the controller may operate the nasal vaccination dischargemechanism 1935 to provide a dose of the nasal vaccination to the calfusing the feeder 1900. The digital health records for this calf are thenupdated to indicate the calf has been vaccinated.

Due to the importance of disease diagnosis and vaccination by aGreenFeed system, it may be useful to show how such functions orprocesses may be implemented via modification of the method of FIG. 8(with repeated/retained steps shown with like numbers as used previouslyfor method 800). FIG. 20 illustrates a method 2000 for monitoring andcontrolling GHG emissions and also diagnosing diseases and providingtimely vaccinations against diseases, as may be practiced by operationof one or more of the GreenFeed systems described herein.

At 801, an animal approaches a feed station or other monitoring locationsuch as a stall or portion of an automated or other milkingstation/parlor. At 802, a sensor may detect the presence of the animal(e.g., a scale, a tag reader, a motion detector, or other animaldetection device), and, at 803, the animal is identified such as by useof an RFID tag reader to read an ear or other ID tag on the animal. Alook up may be performed for the identified animal to determine whetherthe animal has been fed at 805 or unfed at 804. If fed, the feeding orother monitoring station is not operated to dispense food/nutrients asshown at 807, and the animal later leaves as shown at 810. Data maystill be recorded at 811 regarding the animal and their access of themonitoring station (e.g., their temperature, their weight, and otheranimal monitoring information discussed herein).

If at 804 it is determined that the identified animal has not been fedwithin a particular time period, a light may turn on and/or a tone maysound to alert the animal that they are eligible to be fed. At 804 orearlier, the air sampling pipe and fan are turned on to pull air at aknown flow-rate through the animal feed unit. When the animal insertsits head into the correct position as monitored by an infrared or sonicsensor or the like, a feed station or the like is operated at 806 todispense feed. The feed may be chosen based on a prior breath analysisfor the animal to try to control GHG production/emission or to controlanimal production. The dispensed feed, for example, may include aparticular mixture of two, three, or more feeds and/or supplements thathave been determined by a data analyzing station as appropriate for theidentified animal in controlling their GHG emissions (or achieving ananimal production goal such as weight gain, milk production, or thelike).

At 2008, a gas release mechanism may optionally be operated to release aparticular quantity of a known trace gas or gases such as CO, propane,or the like for use in diagnosing lung-related and other diseases (asdiscussed in detail herein). At 809, the feeding station, and its NDIRanalyzer or other gas analyzing equipment, is operated to takemeasurements of the contents of the animal's breath including GHGemissions.

At 2010, the system acts to determine, based on a look up to a databaseusing the animal's ID from step 803, whether the animal is due for avaccination available from the feed station. For example, the animal maybe a calf that has not yet received a vaccination for a particulardisease and has reached a particular age (or body weight). If so, themethod 2000 continues at 2020 with the feed station operating a nasalvaccination discharge/delivery mechanism to eject/disperse a predefineddose of a particular nasal vaccination at a location in thefeeder/manger proximate to the animal's nostrils. If the animal isdetermined at 2010 to have already received the vaccination or is notnow suited for such a vaccination (too young or other criteria), themethod continues at 2008. In this manner, the vaccination is onlydelivered to animals that are suited for such a vaccination to increaseits effectiveness and avoid wasting an often expensive vaccination(e.g., over dosing of medicine, providing when not effective, and soon).

At 811, the measured data (and other animal data) may be recorded in alocal data logger and/or after transmission to a data analyzing stationwith a disease diagnostics and control (vaccination) module. At 812, thefeeding station resets 812 and awaits another animal. At 2013, themethod 2000 continues with the data monitored at the individual feed orother station being analyzed by software/hardware provided at a dataanalyzing station (or locally at the feed station or other station insome cases). In step 2013, the amounts of CH₄ and CO₂ may be determinedfor the animal along with ratios useful for determining whichsupplements and supplement/nutrient ratios may be used to control GHGproduction/emission by the animal. Also, at 2013, the method 2000includes processing the data from step 809 to determine whether theanimal may or may not have one or more diseases such as a lung-relateddisease readily identified by use of the tracer/challenge gas releasedin step 2008 or a particular emission detected by a sensor in step 809.

At 814, the data, including administered nasal vaccinations anddiagnosed diseases, may be uploaded to a server (e.g., the dataanalyzing station, a server in a network with the analyzing station, orthe like) and at 815, the database storing GHG and othermonitored/analyzed data for each animal is updated to reflectvaccinations and diagnosed diseases as well as the most recent feedingand monitoring of the animal with the collected/analyzed data beinglinked to the animal's ID (e.g., a record may be maintained for eachanimal with fields for each type of tracked information).

1. A method of administering a vaccination to an animal, comprising:providing a mechanism for dispensing feed into a food tray; sensing theruminant proximate to the food tray in the feed dispensing mechanism;identifying the animal that is using the feed dispensing mechanism;determining the identified animal is receptive to a nasal vaccinationfor a disease; and via an outlet proximate to the food tray, dispensinga dose of the nasal vaccination for the disease.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the determining step includes comparing an age of theidentified animal with a predefined age range for the vaccination forthe disease.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining stepincludes measuring gaseous emissions from the ruminant, processing themeasured emissions to determine a health parameter of the identifiedanimal, and comparing the health parameter with a value for the healthparameter corresponding to the nasal vaccination.
 4. The method of claim1, wherein the dispensing includes spraying the dose of the nasalvaccination into nostrils of the identified animal via a nebulizer. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step includes performinga database lookup to verify the identified animal has not previouslybeen vaccinated for the disease.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein thesensing of the ruminant comprises operating an infrared or ultrasonichead sensor to determine a position of the ruminant's head relative tothe food tray including a distance of a portion of the ruminant's headto the head sensor.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the animal is aruminant.
 8. A method for monitoring health of an animal, comprising:with a proximity sensor, determining an animal has positioned its noseand mouth into a hood of a feeding station; while the animal accessesthe hood, discharging a diagnostic agent into the hood; measuring alevel of the diagnostic agent in air flow drawn from the hood while theanimal access the hood; with a disease diagnostic module, processing themeasured level of the diagnostic agent to diagnosis the animal as havingor being free of a disease.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the animalis a ruminant.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the diagnostic agentcomprises carbon monoxide and the disease comprises a lung-relatedcondition.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the processing of themeasured level is performed over a period of time to determine a carbonmonoxide diffusing capacity for the animal.
 11. The method of claim 8,wherein the diagnostic agent comprises a histamine.
 12. The method ofclaim 8, wherein the diagnostic agent comprises propane.
 13. The methodof claim 12, wherein the processing of the measured level is performedto determine decay of the propane to measure efficiency of lungclearance.
 14. The method of claim 8, further including after the animalis diagnosed as having the disease, dispensing a treatment for thedisease into the hood.
 15. The method of claim 8, wherein the feedingstation includes a fan drawing the air flow into a collection pipe andwherein the hood includes an inlet plenum with a plurality of holespositioned about a periphery of a food tray, the proximity sensorpositioned in the hood to detect when the animal has positioned its noseor mouth proximate to the food tray.
 16. A method for monitoring andcontrolling health of a ruminant, comprising: when a ruminant accesses afeeder dispenser, reading data from a tag on the ruminant identifyingthe ruminant; accessing a methane production monitoring database inmemory with the identifying data to determine a feed mix associated withthe ruminant; operating a dispenser to dispense the feed mix into thefeed dispenser; while the ruminant accesses the feed dispenser to feed,measuring a level of methane and a level of carbon dioxide in breath ofthe ruminant; with a processing module run by a processor, determining ametabolic efficiency of the ruminant and modifying a nutritionalsupplement in the feed mix based on the metabolic efficiency to reducemethane production by the ruminant; generating a report in a userinterface of a user system that includes the metabolic efficiency, anidentifier for the ruminant, and a health parameter for the ruminant;measuring a quantity of a diagnostic gas during the measuring of themethane and carbon dioxide; and determining the health parameter for theruminant based on the measured quantity of the diagnostic gas.
 17. Themethod of claim 16, wherein the health parameter is a diagnosis for adisease.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the disease is lung-relateddisease.
 19. The method of claim 17, wherein the diagnostic gas iscarbon monoxide or propane.
 20. An apparatus for vaccinating a ruminant,comprising: an assembly adapted to entice a ruminant to voluntarilyplace its nose and mouth in a position that facilitates measurement ofexhaled breath; a sensor assembly determining an identity of theruminant; a nasal vaccination discharge mechanism with an outlet nearthe nose and mouth position in the ruminant enticement assembly; and adata analyzing station determining whether to vaccinate the ruminantbased on the determined identity and, based on the vaccinationdetermination, operating the nasal vaccination discharge assembly todischarge a dose of a nasal vaccination for a disease to the ruminantvia the outlet.
 21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the vaccinationdetermination is made by the data analyzing station based on an age ofthe ruminant.
 22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the ruminantenticement assembly comprises a feeder shell with an opening forreceiving the nose and mount of the ruminant, the feeder shell includinga wedge-shaped body and being pivotal in wind such that the openingfaces away from a direction of the wind to limit mixing in the feedershell.
 23. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the ruminant enticementassembly includes a light and sound assembly for selectively emittinglight and sound when the identified ruminant is eligible for feeding viathe apparatus.